(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-175A-1B, IN

Coin Details

Description

Civil War store card from Columbia, Indiana, cataloged as Fuld 175A-1B. Indiana was an important agricultural and manufacturing state, with merchants producing store cards as emergency currency when federal coinage was hoarded. The brass composition of this variety (Fuld 175A-1B) 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. The dies for merchant tokens were usually cut by professional engravers who could produce a complete set in a matter of days. 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 2 cataloged varieties, this merchant was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 175A-1B