(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-165AZ-1I, OH

Coin Details

Auction Record

$74 MS66 08-29-2017 Heritage Auctions

Description

Civil War store card from Ohio, cataloged as Fuld 165AZ-1I. The breadth of Ohio's Civil War token production reflects the state's diverse economy, from Cincinnati's river trade to Cleveland's Lake Erie shipping to interior manufacturing towns. The zinc composition of this variety (Fuld 165AZ-1I) is scarce for this merchant. Undated Civil War tokens like this one circulated alongside dated issues during the 1862-1864 period. 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. Zinc strikings are uncommon and prone to corrosion, making preserved examples desirable. The cent-sized format was chosen deliberately to match the federal Indian Head cent, the coin most conspicuously absent from daily commerce.

Rarity Notes

Zinc strikings are relatively uncommon and prone to corrosion, making well-preserved examples particularly desirable. With 6 cataloged varieties, this merchant was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 165AZ-1I