(1863) Civil War Store Card F-140A-1a, Alden & Frink NY

Coin Details

Auction Record

$228 VF30BN 05-29-2019 Stack's Bowers

Description

Merchant token from Alden & Frink of New York, cataloged as Fuld 140A-1a. New York was the nation's commercial capital, with New York City alone producing hundreds of store card varieties from Broadway retailers to waterfront wholesalers. The copper composition of this variety (Fuld 140A-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. The transition from large copper cents to small-diameter bronze cents in 1857 had already created a shortage mindset, making the public particularly anxious about coin supplies when war began. 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 6 cataloged varieties, Alden & Frink was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 140A-1a