(1863) Civil War Store Card F-300-D-3a, Janesville; Connell/1127 WI

Coin Details

Description

Janesville; Connell/1127 of Wisconsin produced this token as a cent substitute during the wartime 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 manufacturers struck pieces by the thousands, using hand-fed screw presses capable of producing several hundred tokens per hour. The token era ended when Congress authorized new federal small-denomination currency and criminalized private token production in 1864. Civil War tokens circulated alongside postage currency, fractional currency notes, and encased postage stamps as substitutes for the federal coins that had disappeared from commercial channels. 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 6 cataloged varieties, Janesville; Smith/1111 was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 300-D