(1861-65) Civil War Store Card F-165-GJ-13a, F-OH-165-GJ-13a Cincinnati; Wert/Deinzer OH

Coin Details

Description

Civil War-era store card from F-OH-165-GJ-13a Cincinnati; Wert/Deinzer of 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. 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 coin shortage of 1862-1864 affected virtually every retail transaction in the Northern states, as hoarding removed silver and copper coins from circulation faster than the U.S. Mint could replace them. The cent-sized format was chosen deliberately to match the federal Indian Head cent, the coin most conspicuously absent from daily commerce.

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 21 cataloged varieties, F-OH-165-AO-6a Cincinnati; Ferguson/1068 was a moderately active token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 165-GJ