(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-165AY-3B, OH

Coin Details

Description

Civil War store card from Ohio, cataloged as Fuld 165AY-3B. Ohio produced more varieties of Civil War store cards than any other state, driven by Cincinnati's role as the largest inland city and a Union Army supply hub. The brass composition of this variety (Fuld 165AY-3B) is common to somewhat scarce for this merchant. 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. Between 1862 and 1864, Northern merchants produced millions of private tokens to compensate for the disappearance of federal coinage. The brass composition gives this token a warm golden tone that contrasts with the reddish-brown of copper strikings. George and Melvin Fuld's catalog remains the standard reference for Civil War tokens, with each variety assigned a unique identification number.

Rarity Notes

Brass strikings are among the more available metal variants, though typically less common than copper. With 9 cataloged varieties, this merchant was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 165AY-3B