MARSHALL HOUSE TOKEN – THE FIRST CONFEDERATE CENT Start Price USD 49.99 Current Price USD 127.50 Time Left - Bid Count 11 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Saturday, August 23, 2008 End Time Saturday, August 30, 2008 Location Denver, CO See more about 'MARSHALL HOUSE TOKEN – THE FIRST CONFEDERATE CENT' Description A very nice specimen of the 1859 Marshall House store card, made by Robert Lovett, Jr. of Philadelphia. Lovett, not coincidentally, also designed the Confederate cent. This token was, almost certainly, the prototype for the Confederate cent and was referred to as “the 1859 Confederate cent” by Herb Romerstein. The Marshall House, which stood at the corner of King and Pitt streets in Alexandria, Virginia was owned by James W. Jackson, an ardent secessionist. On May 24, 1861, Colonel Ephraim Elmer Ellsworth of the 11th New York Fire Zouaves went to the Marshall House to remove a Confederate flag that was flying over the building. Ellsworth climbed to the top floor of the building and cut down the flag. As he was descending the stairs to the ground floor, he held up the flag and said, “Behold my trophy.” Jackson stepped through a nearby doorway with a double-barreled shotgun and said, “and behold mine.” He fired his shotgun just as Sergeant Francis Brownell knocked the barrel aside with his musket and shot Jackson, then bayoneted him. Jackson’s shot struck Ellsworth in the chest, killing him. This action earned Brownell the Medal of Honor and made Jackson an early hero of the Confederacy. These tokens circulated as specie in Richmond early in the war, before specie disappeared and, again when specie re-emerged in early 1864. In the book, The Lovett Cent A Confederate Story, by Harold Levi and George Corell, the authors state, “The Marshall House store card circulated as one-cent pieces in Richmond. It is not a quantum leap to assume that some Confederate officials and bank note company representatives possessed Marshall House store cards. It would not have been difficult for Confederate authorities or bank note company representatives to find out where the owner of the Marshall House had the store cards made, and who made them. The store card could easily have functioned as a prototype of a Confederate cent.” The Marshall House token was the first use of the French Liberty by Robert Lovett, Jr. There are minor diagnostic differences between the Confederate cent and the Marshall House store card, primarily the six incuse stars with six points in the headband of the cap. As usual with the Marshall House store cards, the 9 in the date is very lightly struck on this piece. Very Low opening bid and no reserve. The buyer pays $5.00 for shipping within the U.S. (the actual postal fees and insurance). I will send an invoice when the auction ends. (**PLEASE do not pay before receiving the invoice, as the amounts E-Bay automatically inserts are incorrect.**) Due to ever-more-sophisticate scams, I Do Not send second chance offers. Thank you for looking and for your bids. Place a Bid!