(1864) Copper Civil War Store Card F-77A-1a, Langdons Hardware Store NY

Coin Details

Auction Record

$312 MS62BN 09-21-2022 Stack's Bowers

Description

Merchant token from Langdons Hardware Store of New York, cataloged as Fuld 77A-1a. New York was the nation's commercial capital, with New York City alone producing hundreds of store card varieties from Broadway retailers to waterfront wholesalers. The copper composition of this variety (Fuld 77A-1a) is common for this merchant. Die sinkers offered merchants a choice of metals, with copper being cheapest and most common, while silver and gold were struck for collectors. Civil War tokens addressed a practical problem: the wartime disappearance of federal small change made daily transactions nearly impossible without private substitutes. Merchants who issued tokens during the Civil War provided a critical public service by maintaining the ability to make change for routine purchases at a time when federal coinage had nearly vanished from everyday commerce. 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 3 cataloged varieties, Langdons Hardware Store was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 77A-1a