(1862) Copper Civil War Store Card F-165GC-3a, Van. Wunder OH

Coin Details

Description

Merchant token from Van. Wunder of Cincinnati, Ohio, cataloged as Fuld 165GC-3a. Cincinnati's position as a Union Army supply center and Ohio River trade hub made it a prolific source of Civil War tokens. John Stanton and other die sinkers based in the city produced dies for merchants across the Midwest. The 18 cataloged varieties for Van. Wunder indicate a notable level of token production. The copper composition of this variety (Fuld 165GC-3a) 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. 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 18 cataloged varieties, Van. Wunder was a notable token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 165GC-3a