(1863) Copper Civil War Store Card F-200J-1a, Wiatt & Bro. OH

Coin Details

Description

Merchant token from Wiatt & Bro. of Columbus, Ohio, cataloged as Fuld 200J-1a. As Ohio's capital, Columbus saw enormous wartime military activity, and its merchants issued tokens to facilitate commerce amid the acute coin shortage. With 4 known varieties, Wiatt & Bro. produced a modest number of token types. This copper striking (Fuld 200J-1a) is common among the known varieties. 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. 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. 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 4 cataloged varieties, Wiatt & Bro. was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 200J-1a