(1860-65) Copper Civil War Store Card F-165FB-2a, Elis Rouse's OH

Coin Details

Auction Record

$552 VF35BN 11-18-2020 Stack's Bowers

Description

Merchant token from Elis Rouse's of Cincinnati, Ohio, cataloged as Fuld 165FB-2a. Cincinnati was the largest inland city in antebellum America and a critical supply center for the Union Army, driving Ohio to produce more varieties of Civil War store cards than any other state. With 2 known varieties, Elis Rouse's produced a modest number of token types. The copper composition of this variety (Fuld 165FB-2a) is common for this merchant. Token manufacturers struck pieces by the thousands, using hand-fed screw presses capable of producing several hundred tokens per hour. Civil War tokens addressed a practical problem: the wartime disappearance of federal small change made daily transactions nearly impossible without private substitutes. The Fuld catalog documents thousands of distinct die combinations for Civil War store cards, making this one of the most complex series in American numismatics.

Rarity Notes

Copper strikings are generally the most common metal variant for Civil War store cards, as copper was the standard planchet material mimicking the federal cent. With 2 cataloged varieties, Elis Rouse's was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 165FB-2a