(1861-65) Copper Civil War Store Card F-165M-1a, B.P. Belknp. OH

Coin Details

Auction Record

$216 AU58BN 12-16-2020 Stack's Bowers

Description

B.P. Belknp. of Ohio issued this Civil War store card during the 1862-1864 coin shortage. 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. The copper composition of this variety (Fuld 165M-1a) is common 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. Many Civil War tokens survive in high grades because merchants and the public saved them as novelties, resulting in a better average preservation than contemporary federal coins.

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 1 cataloged varieties, B.P. Belknp. was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 165M-1a