(1863) Copper-Nickel Civil War Store Card F-630BN-1do, Geo. D. Schmidt NY

Coin Details

Auction Record

$641 MS64 04-13-2021 eBay

Description

Geo. D. Schmidt of New York issued this token as emergency currency during the Civil War. New York state generated the second-largest body of Civil War token issues, concentrated in New York City but extending to Albany, Troy, Buffalo, and smaller commercial centers. This piece is an overstrike struck over a host coin, an 1863 Indian Head cent. Traces of the original design may be visible beneath the new impressions. Token manufacturers struck pieces by the thousands, using hand-fed screw presses capable of producing several hundred tokens per hour. Between 1862 and 1864, Northern merchants produced millions of private tokens to compensate for the disappearance of federal coinage. The copper-nickel composition gave these tokens the closest resemblance to federal coinage of any metal variant. The Fuld catalog documents thousands of distinct die combinations for Civil War store cards, making this one of the most complex series in American numismatics.

Rarity Notes

Copper-nickel strikings are moderately scarce compared to pure copper or brass versions. Overstrike varieties are generally scarcer than tokens struck on blank planchets, as they required sourcing and re-striking existing coins. With 6 cataloged varieties, Geo. D. Schmidt was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 630BN-1do