(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-165FV-6B, OH

Coin Details

Description

Merchant token from Chas. Spreen of Cincinnati, Ohio, cataloged as Fuld 165FV-6B. 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 11 cataloged varieties for Chas. Spreen indicate a notable level of token production. Struck in brass, this die combination (Fuld 165FV-6B) is common to somewhat scarce. 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 11 cataloged varieties, Chas. Spreen was a notable token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 165FV-6B