(1864) Copper Civil War Store Card F-285A-4a, J.H. Thomas IN

Coin Details

Description

Fuld 285A-4a — store card of J.H. Thomas, Fortville, Indiana. Indiana was an important agricultural and manufacturing state, with merchants producing store cards as emergency currency when federal coinage was hoarded. With 4 known varieties, J.H. Thomas produced a modest number of token types. The copper composition of this variety (Fuld 285A-4a) is common 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. Token production during the Civil War represented the largest private coinage movement in American history, with an estimated 25 million pieces struck between 1862 and 1864. The cent-sized format was chosen deliberately to match the federal Indian Head cent, the coin most conspicuously absent from daily commerce.

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 4 cataloged varieties, J.H. Thomas was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 285A-4a