Years ago growing up as a poor young boy in Pennsylvania, I would often fantasize about having a magic carpet or a time machine to go back to a world long gone.
 
 A time machine or a magic carpet would be the vehicle to transport me back to the Civil War which has been and always will be one of my favorite times in history.
 
 On my 15th birthday, my Aunt Elaine gave me three Civil War Tokens. Suddenly I woke up. Here was my magic carpet that I had fantasized all these years. The coins are a magic carpet. Holding them in your hand, you can fantasize about that moment in time. You can go back to 1864 and try to imagine what life was like without the computer, without the automobile, running water, electricity and all the thousands of things we have come accustomed to that we take for granted.
 
 What can you see around you today that you can look at, hold in your hand that was there in 1864? The coin becomes much more than a coin. It becomes a magic carpet. It is history you can hold in your hands. It was there in 1864 and you can be there in 1864.
 
 Just imagine for a few moments what life was like in 1864. The Civil War was drawing to a close, a war during which we lost almost 500,000 men and divided brother against brother, The loss of life is even more dramatic when you put into prospective that the population of the United States during the Civil War was only 22 million. So a loss of life of 500,000 men on both sides was huge in relationship to the population. I still have the Civil War token in my hands as I am going back and taking you back with me in time on our magic carpet.
 
 I find coins and history intertwined. This Civil War token that I still have in my hand continues to allow me to have an insight what was taking place. The United States at that time had few large cities, mostly rural farmland where the main industries consisted of farming and agricultural, raising cattle, mining, building of railroads and transportation of goods and products. The average soldier that fought in the Civil War, at least on the northern side that I have researched, was paid between $12 and $20 a month. So a penny or a Civil War token was actually very valuable and could actually buy something.
 
 Find some coins that interest you, some history you can hold in your hand and climb aboard your own magic carpet as I did.