(1864) Civil War Store Card F-220-E-1b, Fond du Lac; Fritz/1174 WI

Coin Details

Description

Civil War merchant token bearing the name of Fond du Lac; Fritz/1174 in Wisconsin. 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. Token production was a specialized trade — die sinkers maintained catalogs of stock dies that merchants could pair with custom obverses. Congress banned private token issuance in April 1864, but before that, tokens like this one circulated freely as cent substitutes in Northern commerce. 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. Over 25 million Civil War tokens were produced before Congress ended private coinage in April 1864, making them the largest private coinage movement in American history.

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 8 cataloged varieties, Fond du Lac; Alling/0016N was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 220-E