(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-165BL-4B, OH

Coin Details

Auction Record

$53 MS65 09-26-2022 eBay

Description

This Civil War token was issued by W.W. Hanley, operating in Cincinnati, Ohio. Cincinnati was the largest inland city in antebellum America and a critical supply center for the Union Army, driving Ohio to produce more varieties of Civil War store cards than any other state. W.W. Hanley issued 8 die varieties, more than most Civil War merchants. The brass composition of this variety (Fuld 165BL-4B) 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 8 cataloged varieties, W.W. Hanley was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 165BL-4B