(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-165CY-52A, OH

Coin Details

Description

Civil War store card from Cincinnati, Ohio, cataloged as Fuld 165CY-52A. Cincinnati's position as a Union Army supply center and Ohio River trade hub made it a prolific source of Civil War tokens. John Stanton and other die sinkers based in the city produced dies for merchants across the Midwest. The copper composition of this variety (Fuld 165CY-52A) is common 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 cent-sized format was chosen deliberately to match the federal Indian Head cent, the coin most conspicuously absent from daily commerce.

Rarity Notes

Copper strikings are generally the most common metal variant for Civil War store cards, as copper was the standard planchet material mimicking the federal cent. With 72 cataloged varieties, this merchant was a substantial producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 165CY-52A