(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-345A-1B, CT

Coin Details

Description

Civil War store card from Connecticut, cataloged as Fuld 345A-1B. Connecticut was a major arms manufacturing center, with Colt in Hartford and Winchester in New Haven. Its merchants issued tokens alongside the munitions output. This brass striking (Fuld 345A-1B) is common to somewhat scarce among the known varieties. This undated piece entered commerce during the 1862-1864 period when millions of private tokens replaced vanished federal coinage. Token manufacturers struck pieces by the thousands, using hand-fed screw presses capable of producing several hundred tokens per hour. 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 3 cataloged varieties, this merchant was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 345A-1B