(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-175O-4A, OH

Coin Details

Description

Civil War-era store card from Chas. W. Stearns, a Cleveland, Ohio business. Cleveland was a major Lake Erie port and growing industrial center connected to Eastern markets by railroad and the Ohio & Erie Canal. Chas. W. Stearns issued 9 die varieties, more than most Civil War merchants. This copper striking (Fuld 175O-4A) is common among the known varieties. 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. George and Melvin Fuld's catalog remains the standard reference for Civil War tokens, with each variety assigned a unique identification number.

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 9 cataloged varieties, Chas. W. Stearns was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 175O-4A