(1863) Copper Civil War Store Card F-620E-1a, Hasbrouck & Fancher WI

Coin Details

Auction Record

$288 MS64BN 12-16-2020 Stack's Bowers

Description

Merchant token from Hasbrouck & Fancher of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, cataloged as Fuld 620E-1a. 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. This copper striking (Fuld 620E-1a) is common among the known varieties. Many Civil War tokens share common reverse dies, as die sinkers paired merchant-specific obverses with stock patriotic or advertising reverses. Civil War tokens addressed a practical problem: the wartime disappearance of federal small change made daily transactions nearly impossible without private substitutes. 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. Surviving specimens are tangible artifacts of the wartime monetary crisis that affected every commercial transaction in the Northern states.

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, Hasbrouck & Fancher was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 620E-1a