(1863) Copper Civil War Store Card F-550A-1a, W.H. Bogardus WI

Coin Details

Auction Record

$168 XF45BN 09-21-2022 Stack's Bowers

Description

Fuld 550A-1a — store card of W.H. Bogardus, N. Prairie, Wisconsin. 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. The copper composition of this variety (Fuld 550A-1a) is common for this merchant. 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. Some token dies were used so extensively that late strikes show significant die wear, providing collectors with a chronological sequence of the production run from fresh to deteriorated states. Token production peaked in 1863 when the coin shortage was most acute, with die sinkers working around the clock to fill merchant orders.

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, W.H. Bogardus was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 550A-1a