(No Date) Brass Civil War Store Card F-370K-1b, A. Roberts & Son MI

Coin Details

Description

Civil War store card issued by A. Roberts & Son of Michigan. Michigan's merchants across numerous cities actively produced tokens to combat the small change shortage affecting Northern commerce. A. Roberts & Son issued 6 die varieties, more than most Civil War merchants. The brass composition of this variety (Fuld 370K-1b) is common to somewhat scarce for this merchant. This undated piece entered commerce during the 1862-1864 period when millions of private tokens replaced vanished federal coinage. Token manufacturers struck pieces by the thousands, using hand-fed screw presses capable of producing several hundred tokens per hour. Civil War tokens addressed a practical problem: the wartime disappearance of federal small change made daily transactions nearly impossible without private substitutes. The brass composition gives this token a warm golden tone that contrasts with the reddish-brown of copper strikings.

Rarity Notes

Brass strikings are among the more available metal variants, though typically less common than copper. With 6 cataloged varieties, A. Roberts & Son was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 370K-1b