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

Coin Details

Description

This Civil War token was issued by Harley & Linvill, operating in Columbia, Indiana. Indiana was an important agricultural and manufacturing state, with merchants producing store cards as emergency currency when federal coinage was hoarded. With 4 known varieties, Harley & Linvill produced a modest number of token types. The brass composition of this variety (Fuld 175B-1B) is common to somewhat scarce for this merchant. Like the majority of Civil War store cards, this token is undated, produced during the acute 1862-1864 small change crisis. Token manufacturers struck pieces by the thousands, using hand-fed screw presses capable of producing several hundred tokens per hour. Between 1862 and 1864, Northern merchants produced millions of private tokens to compensate for the disappearance of federal coinage. Brass tokens are moderately available, with their yellowish color distinguishing them from the standard copper issues.

Rarity Notes

Brass strikings are among the more available metal variants, though typically less common than copper. With 4 cataloged varieties, Harley & Linvill was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 175B-1B