(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-587B-IB, MI

Coin Details

Description

Civil War store card from Michigan, cataloged as Fuld 587B-IB. Michigan's merchants across numerous cities actively produced tokens to combat the small change shortage affecting Northern commerce. This undated piece entered commerce during the 1862-1864 period when millions of private tokens replaced vanished federal coinage. Professional die sinkers like John Stanton, Benjamin True, and William Bridgens supplied dies to merchants across the Northern states. The Civil War small change crisis generated the largest private coinage movement in American history, with merchants and die sinkers producing tokens for circulation. Die sinkers in major cities competed fiercely for merchant orders, offering stock reverses that could be paired with custom obverse dies featuring the merchant's name and business information. The Fuld catalog documents thousands of distinct die combinations for Civil War store cards, making this one of the most complex series in American numismatics.

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, A. Button was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 587B-IB