(1864) Brass Civil War Store Card F-510AA-1b, A. Miller & Co. WI

Coin Details

Description

A. Miller & Co., a Milwaukee merchant, issued this Civil War store card during the 1862-1864 coin shortage. Milwaukee's thriving German-American merchant community made it the center of Wisconsin's Civil War token production. The 14 cataloged varieties for A. Miller & Co. indicate a notable level of token production. The brass composition of this variety (Fuld 510AA-1b) is common to somewhat scarce for this merchant. 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 brass composition gives this token a warm golden tone that contrasts with the reddish-brown of copper strikings. 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

Brass strikings are among the more available metal variants, though typically less common than copper. With 14 cataloged varieties, A. Miller & Co. was a notable token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 510AA-1b