(1863) Civil War Store Card F-270-A-1a, Hale's Corner; Siegel/1194 WI

Coin Details

Description

Hale�s Corner; Siegel/1194 of Wisconsin issued this Civil War store card during the 1862-1864 coin shortage. 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. 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. 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. 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

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, Hale�s Corner; Siegel/1194 was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 270-A