(1863) Copper Civil War Store Card F-90A-1a, Weaver & Fox MI

Coin Details

Description

Civil War-era store card from Weaver & Fox, a Buchanan, Michigan business. Michigan's merchants across numerous cities actively produced tokens to combat the small change shortage affecting Northern commerce. With 2 known varieties, Weaver & Fox produced a modest number of token types. The copper composition of this variety (Fuld 90A-1a) is common for this merchant. Die sinkers offered merchants a choice of metals, with copper being cheapest and most common, while silver and gold were struck for collectors. Civil War tokens addressed a practical problem: the wartime disappearance of federal small change made daily transactions nearly impossible without private substitutes. 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 2 cataloged varieties, Weaver & Fox was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 90A-1a