(1864) Civil War Store Card F-045-A--1, F-WI-045-A--1 Baraboo; Peck and Orvis/1145 WI

Coin Details

Description

Store card of F-WI-045-A--1 Baraboo; Peck and Orvis/1145 in Wisconsin, struck during the 1862-1864 token era. 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 dies for merchant tokens were usually cut by professional engravers who could produce a complete set in a matter of days. Civil War tokens addressed a practical problem: the wartime disappearance of federal small change made daily transactions nearly impossible without private substitutes. Token issuers ranged from sole proprietors to large retail establishments, with some merchants ordering thousands of pieces while others had only a few hundred struck for local distribution. 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 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, F-WI-045-A--1 Baraboo; Peck and Orvis/1145 was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 045-A