(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-420B-1a, WI

Coin Details

Description

Civil War store card from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, cataloged as Fuld 420B-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. Struck in copper, this die combination (Fuld 420B-1a) is common. Civil War tokens rarely bear dates. This piece was struck during the 1862-1864 coin shortage, when merchants needed emergency small change. 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. Many Civil War tokens survive in high grades because merchants and the public saved them as novelties, resulting in a better average preservation than contemporary federal coins.

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, this merchant was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 420B-1a