(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-140A-2a, WI

Coin Details

Description

Civil War-era store card from C. Dahmen & Son, a Crossplain, Wisconsin business. Wisconsin was a growing frontier state with Milwaukee as its largest commercial center, and its merchants issued tokens as practical solutions to the coin shortage. With 2 known varieties, C. Dahmen & Son produced a modest number of token types. Struck in copper, this die combination (Fuld 140A-2a) is common. 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 Fuld catalog documents thousands of distinct die combinations for Civil War store cards, making this one of the most complex series in American numismatics.

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 2 cataloged varieties, C. Dahmen & Son was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 140A-2a