(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-120A-5A, IN

Coin Details

Description

Store card of Re O.H.P. Ash's in Bowlinggrn, Indiana, struck during the 1862-1864 token era. Indiana was an important agricultural and manufacturing state, with merchants producing store cards as emergency currency when federal coinage was hoarded. Re O.H.P. Ash's issued 9 die varieties, more than most Civil War merchants. Struck in copper, this die combination (Fuld 120A-5A) is common. Like the majority of Civil War store cards, this token is undated, produced during the acute 1862-1864 small change crisis. 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. 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 9 cataloged varieties, Re O.H.P. Ash's was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 120A-5A