(1863) Brass Civil War Store Card F-925A-1b, Bodine & Brothers NJ

Coin Details

Description

Merchant token from Bodine & Brothers of Williamstn, New Jersey, cataloged as Fuld 925A-1b. New Jersey was a vital industrial and transportation state, with Newark, Trenton, and Paterson as major manufacturing centers where merchants issued Civil War tokens. The brass composition of this variety (Fuld 925A-1b) is common to somewhat scarce for this merchant. Token production was a specialized trade — die sinkers maintained catalogs of stock dies that merchants could pair with custom obverses. Merchant-issued tokens circulated as substitutes for scarce federal coinage throughout the Northern states between 1862 and 1864. Brass strikings are among the more available variants, though less common than copper. After Congress banned private coinage in 1864, surviving tokens became instant collectibles, with serious collecting beginning within a decade of the war's end.

Rarity Notes

Brass strikings are among the more available metal variants, though typically less common than copper. With 1 cataloged varieties, Bodine & Brothers was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 925A-1b