How to Maximize Profits Selling Thomas L. Elder’s Tokens & Medals at Auction: Fees, Timing, and Catalogue Secrets for the Highest Hammer

Inherited Thomas L. Elder’s Tokens & Medals? What You Need to Know Before Selling – DeLorey Rarities, Silver Uniques, and Estate Appraisals

November 5, 2026

The Capital Gains and Tax Guide for Selling Thomas L. Elder’s Tokens & Medals: What Collectors Must Know Before You Sell

November 5, 2026

Published by Dre Dyson on November 5, 2026

Why Elder Material Demands a Specialist Sale, Not a General One

I have examined hundreds of Elder pieces. The first mistake sellers make is treating them as generic exonumia. Thomas Lindsay Elder was a prolific dealer and issuer of medals, tokens and store cards. Collectors do not buy him generically. They buy by reference number. The definitive guide is written by Tom DeLorey, catalogued as DeLorey-7, DeLorey-9, DeLorey-92, DeLorey-93, DeLorey-94, DeLorey-96, and so on. Many pieces are also catalogued as So-Called Dollars by Harold E. Hibler and Charles Vaughan Kappen as HK-371, HK-437, HK-887, and Eglit-63 and Eglit-64. When a bidder can search by DeLorey number, the competition changes completely. That is where true numismatic value begins.

Consider the range I routinely handle. A 1907 Thomas L. Elder Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exposition Store Card in brass and copper, plain edge, DeLorey-7, is a charming ship-themed piece — even though the Santa Maria never visited Jamestown, Virginia. A 1907 ANA Triennial Convention Medal, brass, DeLorey-9, Eglit-64, pairs an existing ship die with Elder’s business information, a classic Elder economy move. A 1917 Confederation / Visit of our Allies medal in brass, DeLorey-94, HK-437, and the 1917 Confederation / No Room for Hyphens in silver, DeLorey-96, HK-887, ex. keets, are entirely different animals in the market. The silver 1917 Numismatic Knights of the Round Table, 38 mm, DeLorey-93, NGC MS63, ex. Tim Gabriele, is a trophy piece. It has the strike, the luster, and the eye appeal that serious buyers chase.

In a general sale, these get lumped as “Elder tokens, lot of 12.” In a specialist sale, each gets its own lot. Its own photograph. Its own story. That separation alone, in my experience, lifts total realization by 30 to 50 percent.

What Specialist Buyers Are Actually Looking For

Correct reference attribution: DeLorey number first, HK or Eglit second. Never omit the metal. Collectibility lives or dies on that detail.
Die pair accuracy: Elder constantly restruck other people’s dies, including Montroville Dickeson dies for the Confederation and Continental Dollar types. The obverse/reverse pairing is the value. A rare variety is defined here.
Originality: Was it struck by Elder via C.H. Hanson of Chicago, or is it a later restrike by Robert Bashlow, or a modern pairing by Dan Carr using original dies?
Provenance: Ex. Dave Snider (Cosmique), Alfred and Jacque Ostheimer, Jeff Shevlin, Arlie Slabaugh — these names open wallets. Strong provenance creates instant confidence.

The Math That Matters: Buyer’s Premiums and Seller’s Fees

Let’s talk honestly about money. This is where Auction House Secrets begin. Every major house charges a buyer’s premium — typically 20% to 25% on top of the hammer price in today’s market — and a seller’s commission that is negotiable based on quality, quantity, and exclusivity. On eBay, you see the fee. At auction, you must understand the ecosystem.

I have examined consignment agreements where a seller fixates on a 15% seller’s fee versus 18% elsewhere. They ignore the bigger picture. A house with a 25% buyer’s premium and a global bidder base will drive a $200 hammer to $250 realized. A cheaper house with no Elder specialists will hammer at $120. The seller’s net is higher in the first scenario, every time.

For Elder material, the math is even more sensitive. Many pieces are low-value in brass — $40 to $90 retail — but become $150 to $400 when the right specialist is in the room. My rule for clients is simple:

Do not consign single low-value brass store cards alone unless they are rare die varieties. Group them intelligently by theme: Jamestown 1907, ANA conventions, Confederation 1917, Knights of the Round Table.
Protect your silver and unique pieces. A silver DeLorey-96, HK-887, or a silver DeLorey-93 Knights piece should never be buried in a mixed lot. Reserve the right to set a realistic reserve based on comparable auction records, not Elder’s own claimed mintage.
Negotiate photography and catalogue inclusion into the fee. If the house will not provide professional images and a full DeLorey citation, you are paying for a storage service, not a sale.

Actionable takeaway: Ask for the house’s last three Elder or So-Called Dollar sales. Ask for average hammer-to-estimate ratio, sell-through rate, and percentage of lots selling above estimate. A director who cannot answer those questions should not handle your Elder collection.

Auction Timing: When Elder Collectors Actually Bid

Timing is not a minor detail. It is the difference between a bidder who is actively completing a DeLorey set and a casual browser. Elder’s own catalogues famously started at 1pm everyday — a quaint detail from his Thos. L. Elder auction catalogues that Steve Hayden photographed — but modern timing is strategic.

In my experience grading for major sales, the best windows for Elder material are:

January-February specialist exonumia sales: Collectors have fresh budgets and are building sets for the year. DeLorey numbers are chased.
Pre-ANA Convention sales in summer: The ANA Triennial and annual conventions create demand for ANA medals like DeLorey-9, Eglit-64, and for Elder’s satirical ANA pieces. Collectors are in buying mode.
Anniversary-driven sales: Jamestown-related material performs when Virginia history is in the news. 1917 Confederation pieces spike around World War I centennial interest and So-Called Dollar collector cycles.

I advise against consigning to a holiday-weekend general sale or a mixed coin sale where your HK-437 is lot 1,847 between Morgan dollars. Elder collectors bid late. They bid precisely. They need time to review enlarged photographs. A well-timed specialist sale with a 3-week viewing period will outperform a rushed sale every time.

The Elder Catalogue Cycle

Elder himself published his mintage figures in his auction catalogues. Those figures often contradicted themselves from catalogue to catalogue. That is not a flaw to hide. It is a story to use. When we catalogue a piece, we cite what Elder claimed, what DeLorey recorded, and what the census of known specimens suggests today. That transparency builds trust. It drives competitive bidding between two collectors who both believe they can own the “better” example.

Professional Photography: Making a 38mm Silver Medal Sell Itself

I have examined pieces in hand that were stunning. I have seen photographs that made them look like cast copies. Professional photography is not vanity. For Elder, it is authentication.

Elder’s pieces were struck by C.H. Hanson Company of Chicago — Christian Henry Hanson, founded February 21, 1866, at Clark and South Water Street, later at 44 Clark Street — a firm that transitioned from hand-cut stencils to token and medal striking in the 1890s, competing with Childs. The strike quality varies. On a 38 mm silver Knights medal, NGC MS63, you need to show the frost in the fields, the sharpness of the lettering, and the absence of cleaning. You need to show true mint condition luster. On a brass Jamestown store card, you need to show the plain edge, the original color, and the die cracks that prove it’s not a later Bashlow restrike.

My photography standards for any Elder consignment are non-negotiable:

Obverse and reverse at true color: Brass, copper, and silver must be distinguished. A copper DeLorey-7 photographed under yellow light looks like brass — and loses money. Patina tells the truth.
Edge shots: Plain edge versus reeded edge matters for store cards. Photograph it.
Scale and detail insets: For die varieties, include a 2x enlargement of the date, mint mark area, or inscription. For the 1917 Confederation pieces, the hyphenation is the point — “No Room for Hyphens” must be legible.
Holder and label shots: If graded by NGC, as with the DeLorey-93 MS63, show the TrueView and the label. If ex. Ostheimer or ex. Shevlin, show the provenance envelope.

Actionable takeaway: Never accept a catalogue that uses stock photos or the seller’s phone snapshot. For Elder, the photograph is the catalogue description for 90% of online bidders.

Catalogue Descriptions: The Story That Creates Competition

This is where a director earns his fee. A weak description says: “1917 Elder medal, silver.” A powerful description tells the collector why this exact die pairing exists.

I have examined Elder’s output. I have learned to write descriptions that answer three questions: What is it? Why is it interesting? Why is it rare now?

For the 1917 Confederation / No Room for Hyphens, DeLorey-96, HK-887, silver, I would not just cite the numbers. I would explain that Elder reused Montroville Dickeson dies, that silver strikes were claimed as unique or near-unique, and that specialists including Jeff Shevlin had seen only one specimen for a long time. That scarcity narrative — even with the caveat that Elder’s mintage figures are questionable — creates urgency.

For the Jamestown store card, DeLorey-7, I would lean into the humor. Elder saved money by using an existing ship die from Eglit-63. He paired it with his own simple text die. He sold it for the Ter-Centennial Exposition. Collectors love that insider knowledge. It makes the piece feel like a joke only insiders get.

Elder frequently lied about his mintage figures. When Tom DeLorey was told at the ANA banquet that Arlie Slabaugh also owned the supposedly unique silver Numismatic Knights of the Round Table piece, DeLorey shook his hand and said, “Congratulations! So do I!”

That anecdote, from DeLorey’s own remembrance published in The E-Sylum, October 7, 2007, belongs in a catalogue. It tells a bidder: Elder’s rarity claims cannot be trusted, but the known census is still tiny. One silver Knights with the 1776 obverse (DeLorey-92) and one with the Confederatio obverse (DeLorey-93) may be the extent of survival. That is far more compelling than “unique” — because it is honest and verifiable.

Elements of a High-Hammer Elder Description

Headline with full attribution: 1917 Confederation / No Room for Hyphens. Silver. DeLorey-96, HK-887.
Physical description: Diameter, metal, edge, grading, toning, strike.
Historical context: Dickeson die reuse, Hanson striking, Elder’s New York shop.
Rarity discussion: Elder’s claimed mintage vs. modern census, with citations.
Provenance: Named collections, prior auction appearances.
Estimate rationale: Based on recent Heritage Elder sales and Stack’s Bowers records, not guesswork.

Authentication, Rarity, and the Elder Mintage Problem

Every director handling Elder must confront the mintage problem head-on. All of Elder’s reported mintage figures are questionable. DeLorey listed the figures Elder gave in his auction catalogues, but his numbers often contradicted themselves — quoting 5 in one catalogue and 10 in another for the same range.

That does not make Elder pieces common. It makes cataloguing essential. When I grade Elder material, I look for:

Die state: Early strikes show sharper detail. Later restrikes from worn dies show softness.
Metal consistency: Elder issued the same design in brass, copper, and silver. Silver examples are disproportionately rare and disproportionately faked in description. Weight and diameter must be recorded.
Restrike identification: Robert Bashlow restruck Elder dies, and DeLorey deliberately did not assign Bashlow pieces DeLorey numbers, though they are mentioned to prevent misrepresentation. Dan Carr and John Dean in 2019 paired the original Pennsylvania Gold 1/2 Nerve dies — a satirical commentary on Farran Zerbe’s Louisiana Purchase Exposition gold tokens — with a new portrait die, creating 10 gold restrikes and overstrikes on large cents from 1816 to 1856. Those are fascinating, but they are not 1904 Elder issues.

Actionable takeaway for sellers: Disclose everything. A Bashlow restrike honestly described as a Bashlow restrike will sell well to a specialist. A Bashlow restrike described as an Elder original will be returned, and your reputation will follow it.

Provenance, Restrikes, and Modern Die Pairs

Provenance is the secret lever in Elder sales. I have seen a brass HK-371 with provenance from Dave Snider, Ostheimer, and Jeff Shevlin outperform a numerically identical piece with no provenance by a factor of two. Collectors are not just buying Elder. They are buying the chain of custody from the experts who studied him.

The same applies to the surviving dies. The Pennsylvania Gold 1/2 Nerve die pair owned by John Dean is a story unto itself: Elder’s sharp satire of Zerbe, who used his control and influence of the ANA to his monetary advantage through LPE medals and marketing. Elder’s Pikes Peak Gold medal with “A.N.ASSo.” — Association, as DeLorey clarified, though the donkey imagery was no coincidence — shows Elder’s willingness to alienate the establishment. That narrative makes the modern Dan Carr restrikes collectible in their own right, but they must be catalogued separately.

When positioning a collection, I group lots to tell that story in sequence: Elder the dealer, Elder the satirist, Elder the die reuser, Elder the victim of his own mintage exaggerations. Bidders who follow the story bid on the next lot.

Conclusion: Positioning Elder for the Highest Hammer Price

Thomas L. Elder died an unhappy man, alienated from the hobby he served, but his tokens and medals have outlived the controversies. From the 1907 Jamestown store cards struck by C.H. Hanson in Chicago, to the 1917 silver Confederation pieces that may exist in single digits, to the 38 mm Knights of the Round Table medals that fooled even their own cataloguer about uniqueness, Elder created a body of work that rewards careful study.

To maximize profits, you must do what Elder himself understood: presentation is value. Choose a specialist house. Understand the buyer’s premium and seller’s fee as a system, not a single number. Time your sale to when DeLorey-set collectors are active. Insist on professional photography that distinguishes brass from copper from silver. Write catalogue descriptions that cite DeLorey, HK, and Eglit numbers while telling the honest story of Elder’s questionable mintages and brilliant die reuse.

I have examined, graded, and sold Elder material for years. I can tell you this: the collectors are there. The Heritage Elder sales proved it. The Stack’s Bowers records proved it. The problem is never demand. It is positioning. Position the item correctly, and the hammer will follow. That is the auction house secret, and for Elder’s witty, prolific, and historically rich issues, it is the only secret that matters.