George H Lovett Gallery Part 3: Historical

OLD MIDDLE DUTCH CHURCH TOKENS

This token is listed in S.C.U.S.T. under the J.M. Bradstreet & Sons merchant tokens as NY 82J since the obverse die is found muled with the Bradstreet dies. Only the silver version is listed but an early auction catalog also list copper, brass, and white metal versions. The silver plated piece may have been plated at a later date.

Old Middle Dutch Church Tokens

Silver, 34mm

Silver plated tin (96.32% tin, 2.22% silver, trace of lead ), 34mm

Brass, 34mm

Copper, 33.9mm

White metal, 33.9mm

Bronze, 34mm

Lithograph circa 1858

The Old middle Dutch Church was consecrated in 1729 with services

originally being held in Dutch. Services in English were eventually

added until, to the consternation of older members, only English

was used. With the occupation of New York by the British

during the Revolutionary War the church was first used as an

overflow prison for the Livingston Sugar House nearby. Later in the

war it was used to train Dragoon horses - the floor was taken

up and covered with tan bark and a pole placed across the

middle of the interior for jumping. After the war it went through

extensive restoration but remain unfinished till the first service was held on the Fourth of July, 1790. It remained an active church

until 1844 when the building was leased to the Federal

Government for use as a Post Office. The property was sold to the Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1882 and the old stone building

was demolished.

The reverse and obverse of this token was used by George H. with a Lincoln die

(obverse of Sullivan AL 1860-32) to create two very illogical

mulings, probably as items of interest only to collectors. A few of

these were in the Zabriskie Collection sold by Stack's in 1999; I

have seen no others. Below is a quote from the Proceedings of the American Numismatic and Archeological Society, March 15, 1897.

"As an instance of the absurd practice of making medals consisting of an obverse and reverse, having nothing to do with each other, I will speak of one Lincoln medal. The obverse happened to be a bust of Mr. Lincoln on a plain field, without even his name. The proper reverse to this medal consists of a wreath and an inscription, "Abraham Lincoln, the right man in the right place, 1861." The maker of this medal was, however, the maker of a medal representing the Old Middle Dutch Church in Nassau Street, which had at one time been used as the post office and on whose site the Mutual Life Insurance Company's Building now stands. There is in existence a medal with the obverse the bust of Lincoln and the reverse a picture of the Middle Dutch Church, with the inscription, "Middle Dutch Church, Nassau Street, N. Y." What should any one imagine who comes across this medal, but that the bust of the obverse represented some good old Dutch dominie, who officiated at that church? But this is not the worst; the reverse of the Dutch Church medal was taken and a singularly absurd medal produced with the bust of Mr. Lincoln on one side and on the other is gravely stated he was, "Erected 1729, Finished 1731, Altered 1764 and was a riding school for the British Dragoons during the Revolutionary War."

Obverse of AL 1860-32