(No Date) Brass Civil War Store Card F-967A-1b, D.B. Packard & Co. PA

Coin Details

Description

Store card of D.B. Packard & Co. in Pennsylvania, struck during the 1862-1864 token era. Pennsylvania was the Union's industrial heartland, with Philadelphia as a manufacturing center and Pittsburgh as an iron and steel producer. This brass striking (Fuld 967A-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. Professional die sinkers like John Stanton, Benjamin True, and William Bridgens supplied dies to merchants across the Northern states. The Civil War small change crisis generated the largest private coinage movement in American history, with merchants and die sinkers producing tokens for circulation. 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 1 cataloged varieties, D.B. Packard & Co. was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 967A-1b