(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-165FX-14A, OH

Coin Details

Description

Merchant token from John Stanton of Cincinnati, Ohio, cataloged as Fuld 165FX-14A. Known as the "Queen of the West," Cincinnati served as a major Ohio River commercial hub. Its merchants produced hundreds of store card varieties during the 1862-1864 coin shortage. With 47 cataloged die varieties, John Stanton was one of the most prolific token issuers in the series. Struck in copper, this die combination (Fuld 165FX-14A) is common. Although undated, this token was produced during the 1862-1864 period when federal coins disappeared from commerce. Token production was a specialized trade — die sinkers maintained catalogs of stock dies that merchants could pair with custom obverses. Congress banned private token issuance in April 1864, but before that, tokens like this one circulated freely as cent substitutes in Northern commerce. Surviving specimens are tangible artifacts of the wartime monetary crisis that affected every commercial transaction in the Northern states.

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 47 cataloged varieties, John Stanton was a substantial producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 165FX-14A