(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-220C-1a, WI

Coin Details

Description

Civil War store card from Fonddulac, Wisconsin, cataloged as Fuld 220C-1a. Wisconsin was a growing frontier state with Milwaukee as its largest commercial center, and its merchants issued tokens as practical solutions to the coin shortage. The copper composition of this variety (Fuld 220C-1a) is common for this merchant. The absence of a date on this token is standard for the 1862-1864 era, when speed of production mattered more than formality. Token production was a specialized trade — die sinkers maintained catalogs of stock dies that merchants could pair with custom obverses. Store cards circulated as emergency currency after wartime hoarding removed federal coins from commercial channels. Civil War store cards are collected both as numismatic items and as historical documents of wartime American commerce.

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 1 cataloged varieties, this merchant was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 220C-1a