I’ve written about William Straight’s shoe store in Albany before. He operated a bootery and shoe store from approximately 1862 to 1866 at the corner of Broadway and Hudson Avenue in downtown Albany (a parking lot exists there now). While his shoes and boots were probably just as good as any other boots and shoes on the market at that time, Mr. Straight had the foresight to create an advertising logo – an elephant with boots on its feet.
Straight marketed his “Elephantine” shoes in the local newspapers with purple-prosed advertisements and testimonials. He claimed that General Ulysses S. Grant’s soldiers purchased all the boots out of his store. Another advertisement suggested that the crowds in his store rivaled that of the local New York regiment.
Other advertisements tied in with local entertainment – when gifted pianist “Blind Tom” performed at Albany’s nearby Tweddle Hall, Straight ran advertisements in the paper suggesting that patrons buy boots first, then go see Blind Tom in concert.
The Elephantine Shoe Store shut down in 1866, and would be a tiny footnote in Albany’s history – had Mr. Straight not had the foresight to strike some brass tokens in lieu of currency. In 1863, government coins and bills were in very short supply, and many merchants minted their own special tokens that could be used for trade. These tokens, also known as “Hard Times” or “Storefronts” or “Copperheads,” existed from approximately 1863 to 1864, when the U.S. Government passed a law that forbade the use of custom-printed currency.
Today, there are over 2,000 different civil war tokens available, many with different variations in strikes. For example, the Benjamin and Herrick Fruit Store had nearly a dozen different tokens, including some that were struck with different backs, some where the fonts are slightly offset, and one set of strikes where the striking die cracked, causing spider-like fractures on the struck tokens.
The Straight’s Elephantine token features the boot-wearing elephant and the store’s name on the obverse; while the coin’s reverse features the establishment’s address (398 Broadway). The token is about the same size as a penny, and is made of brass. It’s actually a common token among civil war exonumia collectors, and coins in somewhat reasonable condition can sell for $20-$50, with more pristine pieces reaching three figures easy.
I have five of these coins. Here they are.
The coins I have vary in condition from decent to weathered. So I’m going to keep the cleanest coin, and use the other four as part of an art project.
To do this, I took several of the Straight’s Elephantine Shoes advertisements and digitally combined them into a wall hanging.
The ad will print in black and white, and features many of the aforementioned adverts. I’ll send this print off to ArtBeat Studios in California for a print on plastic.
Oh, and that blank space at lower right? That’s where I’ll affix four of the store tokens. Two showing the elephant, two showing the reverse. I’m just waiting for some 19mm coinholders to arrive from an Amazon purchase, and then I can affix the coins to that spot.
Yeah, I’m saving this for BUILT 2024. You know I am. This would be perfect for that show, an example of Albany’s history and architecture and legacy.
Even if it’s only a shoe store that existed for maybe three years at best.
They still sold shoes. Somebody bought them.
And I’m good with that.
Chuck The Writer 
I sense a bidding frenzy.
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