During the Civil War era, northern Democrats who sought to make peace with the Confederacy, take the "live and let live" position were deemed Copperheads by theRepublicans. These more extremist Democrats were likened to the venomous copperhead snakes. The below, patriotic Civil War token (Fuld 136/397a) was an anti-Copperhead piece...

Many of the so-called Copperhead Democrats openly flaunted their political position by adopting and wearing a Copperhead badge. The badge was nothing more than acut-down, miniaturized large cent. The obverse stars and reverse legend, United States of America, were removed. The obverse Liberty head was displayed, and a pin was typicallysoldered to the reverse. The Copperheads were a distinct minority and largely reviled. Rather than invite assault, many of them took to carrying this symbolic token as a pocketpiece to share with fellow Copperheads. Below are shown a few examples ...

Here's a contemporary newspaper article about the "Copperhead" badge ...

Judging from the below newspaper article, it appears that the Copperhead badges took root in Connecticut. The article ends, saying they "are worn without shame" ...

An "I told you so" appeared in a Republican newspaper some months later ...

The wearing of the Copperhead badges seems to have peaked during 1863. General Grant's victory at Vicksburg during the summer of that year turned the tide of the war. TheUnion cause was bolstered, and the argument of the Copperheads was much diminished. These little copper badges increasingly caused public turmoil, as evidenced by the belownewspaper account, following the Vicksburg victory.

Soldiers, returning home from battle, found the Copperhead badges to be most offensive. The following newspaper story describes one rather unsettling event, precipitated by abadge-wearing Copperhead ...

Might the below cents have been whimsically fashioned by Copperheads? No way of telling, but they may well have been. The one on the top is crude, whereas the one on the bottomwas skillfully machined in the shape of a nut ... a contrarian political statement, perhaps?

These Copperhead tokens don't command much attention from die-hard collectors of Civil War tokens, yet it's clear that these pieces have no less of a story to tellabout that era. Indeed, one of these would fit comfortably within a display of pacifist Civil War tokens, would it not?

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
QUERY: OCTAGONAL LARGE CENT INFORMATION SOUGHT (https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n38a09.html)