1863 Civil War Token NY Gustavus Lindenmueller

  
1863 Civil War Token NY Gustavus Lindenmueller 630AQ-1a CR1 Uncirculated Historical coin. "Gustavus Lindenmueller: The Myth, The Man, The Mystery".

By Donald Erlenkotter - LM 179. Gustavus Lindenmueller of New York City is a legendary figure to collectors of Civil War tokens.

Standard works on these tokens invariably draw attention to him in their introductory comments. For example, Hetrich and Guttag in their classic 1924 catalog describe how New York City began issuing such tokens. In the Spring of 1863 New York followed [Cincinnati's] example.

The first [token] to be made in New York was the Lindenmueller currency, of which a million pieces were struck. They undoubtedly were a source of great relief and convenience, but their irresponsible character soon attracted the attention of the Federal authorities. It is said that the Third Avenue Railroad of New York requested Lindenmueller to redeem a large number of his tokens, which they had accepted in the course of business, but this he laughingly refused to do.

The railroad had no redress, and it is not improbable that incidents of this character forced the Government to put a stop to their issue.