(1863) Civil War Store Card F-300-A-1a, Janesville; Barrows/45440 WI

Coin Details

Description

Janesville; Barrows/45440 of Wisconsin issued this token as emergency currency during the Civil War. 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. Each unique combination of obverse and reverse dies constitutes a separate Fuld catalog number, even when struck in the same metal. Between 1862 and 1864, Northern merchants produced millions of private tokens to compensate for the disappearance of federal coinage. Many Civil War tokens were produced in quantities far exceeding actual commercial need, as die sinkers and merchants recognized the speculative collecting interest that was already developing. 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, Janesville; Smith/1111 was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 300-A