(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-395A-2A, IN

Coin Details

Description

Jas. Lyon, a Hartford merchant, issued this Civil War store card during the 1862-1864 coin shortage. Indiana was an important agricultural and manufacturing state, with merchants producing store cards as emergency currency when federal coinage was hoarded. Jas. Lyon issued 6 die varieties, more than most Civil War merchants. The copper composition of this variety (Fuld 395A-2A) is common 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. The token era ended when Congress authorized new federal small-denomination currency and criminalized private token production in 1864. After Congress banned private coinage in 1864, surviving tokens became instant collectibles, with serious collecting beginning within a decade of the war's end.

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 6 cataloged varieties, Jas. Lyon was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 395A-2A