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 subjects 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 about all these years. Holding coins in your hand, you can fantasize about that moment in time when they first circulated. You can go back to 1864 and try to imagine what life was like without computers, automobiles, cell phones, running water, electricity and all the thousands of things we have become accustomed to and we take for granted.

What can you see around you today that you can look at and hold in your hand that was there in 1864? A coin is history you can hold in your hands. It was there in 1864 and you can be there in 1864 too. The coin becomes much more than a coin. It becomes a magic carpet to the past.

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 perspective 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 relation to the population at that time. While writing this, I have my 1864 Civil War token in my hands as it takes us back 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 into what was taking place. The United States at that time had few large cities, was mostly rural farmland, and the main industries consisted of farming and agriculture, raising cattle, mining, building of railroads and transportation of goods and products. The average soldier who 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 very valuable and could actually buy something.

Find some coins that interest you and climb aboard your own magic carpet into history, just as I did.