(1863) Civil War Store Card F-870A-2a, Price Brothers IN

Coin Details

Description

Fuld 870A-2a — store card of Price Brothers, Sullivan, Indiana. Hoosier merchants in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, and smaller towns issued Civil War tokens reflecting Indiana's diverse commercial landscape. Price Brothers issued 6 die varieties, more than most Civil War merchants. Struck in copper, this die combination (Fuld 870A-2a) is common. 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. Many Civil War tokens survive in high grades because merchants and the public saved them as novelties, resulting in a better average preservation than contemporary federal coins.

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, Price Brothers was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 870A-2a