(1861-65) Copper Civil War Store Card F-145A-1a, Thin Plan Bingham & Jarvis NY

Coin Details

Description

Thin Plan Bingham & Jarvis of New York issued this token as emergency currency during the Civil War. Bingham & Jarvis operated a drugstore in New York selling drugs, medicines, paints, and oils — a typical combination for 1860s apothecaries. Their tokens date from 1861, making them among the earliest Civil War merchant issues. Struck in copper, this die combination (Fuld 145A-1a) is common. 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 21 cataloged varieties, Thin Plan Bingham & Jarvis was a moderately active token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 145A-1a