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

Coin Details

Description

Civil War store card from Ohio, cataloged as Fuld 165AZ-2B. 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 165AZ-2B) 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. 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 6 cataloged varieties, this merchant was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 165AZ-2B