(1863) Civil War Store Card F-250-I-1a, Green Bay; St. Louis/1168 WI

Coin Details

Description

Merchant token from Green Bay; St. Louis/1168 of Wisconsin, cataloged as Fuld 250-I. Wisconsin was a growing frontier state with Milwaukee as its largest commercial center, and its merchants issued tokens as practical solutions to the coin shortage. The dies for merchant tokens were usually cut by professional engravers who could produce a complete set in a matter of days. Civil War tokens addressed a practical problem: the wartime disappearance of federal small change made daily transactions nearly impossible without private substitutes. Token issuers ranged from sole proprietors to large retail establishments, with some merchants ordering thousands of pieces while others had only a few hundred struck for local distribution. 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 6 cataloged varieties, Green Bay; Detrich/1127 was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 250-I