(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-165AH-2B, OH

Coin Details

Description

Merchant token from Geo. R. Dixon & Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio, cataloged as Fuld 165AH-2B. Known as the "Queen of the West," Cincinnati served as a major Ohio River commercial hub. Its merchants produced hundreds of store card varieties during the 1862-1864 coin shortage. Geo. R. Dixon & Co. produced 20 cataloged die varieties, reflecting a substantial token operation. The brass composition of this variety (Fuld 165AH-2B) 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 20 cataloged varieties, Geo. R. Dixon & Co. was a moderately active token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 165AH-2B