(1861-65) Brass Civil War Store Card F-450G-7b, A. Gleason MI

Coin Details

Auction Record

$240 MS62BN 11-18-2020 Stack's Bowers

Description

Civil War-era store card from A. Gleason, a Hillsdale, Michigan business. Michigan's merchants across numerous cities actively produced tokens to combat the small change shortage affecting Northern commerce. A. Gleason issued 6 die varieties, more than most Civil War merchants. The brass composition of this variety (Fuld 450G-7b) is common to somewhat scarce 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 brass composition gives this token a warm golden tone that contrasts with the reddish-brown of copper strikings. 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

Brass strikings are among the more available metal variants, though typically less common than copper. With 6 cataloged varieties, A. Gleason was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 450G-7b