(1861-65) Brass Civil War Store Card F-165B-1b, (W. Alenburg) OH

Coin Details

Description

Civil War merchant token bearing the name of (W. Alenburg) in Ohio. Ohio produced more varieties of Civil War store cards than any other state, driven by Cincinnati's role as the largest inland city and a Union Army supply hub. With 3 known varieties, (W. Alenburg) produced a modest number of token types. This brass striking (Fuld 165B-1b) is common to somewhat scarce among the known varieties. Token manufacturers struck pieces by the thousands, using hand-fed screw presses capable of producing several hundred tokens per hour. Between 1862 and 1864, Northern merchants produced millions of private tokens to compensate for the disappearance of federal coinage. The brass composition gives this token a warm golden tone that contrasts with the reddish-brown of copper strikings. The cent-sized format was chosen deliberately to match the federal Indian Head cent, the coin most conspicuously absent from daily commerce.

Rarity Notes

Brass strikings are among the more available metal variants, though typically less common than copper. With 3 cataloged varieties, (W. Alenburg) was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 165B-1b