(No Date) Brass Civil War Store Card F-630U-1b, Carl Diem, Lg. Planchet NY

Coin Details

Description

Merchant token from Carl Diem, Lg. Planchet of New York, cataloged as Fuld 630U-1b. New York state generated the second-largest body of Civil War token issues, concentrated in New York City but extending to Albany, Troy, Buffalo, and smaller commercial centers. This brass striking (Fuld 630U-1b) is common to somewhat scarce among the known varieties. Civil War tokens rarely bear dates. This piece was struck during the 1862-1864 coin shortage, when merchants needed emergency small change. 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 8 cataloged varieties, Carl Diem, Lg. Planchet was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 630U-1b