(1861-65) Brass Civil War Store Card F-535Ba-1bo, Holed G.W. Laughlin OH

Coin Details

Auction Record

$1,860 MS62 09-02-2021 Stack's Bowers

Description

Merchant token from Holed G.W. Laughlin of Ohio, cataloged as Fuld 535Ba-1bo. The breadth of Ohio's Civil War token production reflects the state's diverse economy, from Cincinnati's river trade to Cleveland's Lake Erie shipping to interior manufacturing towns. This piece is an overstrike struck over a host coin, an 1863 Indian Head cent. Traces of the original design may be visible beneath the new impressions. Many Civil War tokens share common reverse dies, as die sinkers paired merchant-specific obverses with stock patriotic or advertising reverses. Store cards circulated as emergency currency after wartime hoarding removed federal coins from commercial channels. Brass was the second most common planchet material after copper, giving tokens a golden appearance. Civil War store cards are collected both as numismatic items and as historical documents of wartime American commerce.

Rarity Notes

Brass strikings are among the more available metal variants, though typically less common than copper. Overstrike varieties are generally scarcer than tokens struck on blank planchets, as they required sourcing and re-striking existing coins. With 1 cataloged varieties, Holed G.W. Laughlin was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 535Ba-1bo