(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-630BZ-5B, NY

Coin Details

Auction Record

$120 MS63 11-18-2020 Stack's Bowers

Description

Civil War store card from New York, cataloged as Fuld 630BZ-5B. New York was the nation's commercial capital, with New York City alone producing hundreds of store card varieties from Broadway retailers to waterfront wholesalers. The brass composition of this variety (Fuld 630BZ-5B) is common to somewhat scarce 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. Civil War tokens addressed a practical problem: the wartime disappearance of federal small change made daily transactions nearly impossible without private substitutes. Brass tokens are moderately available, with their yellowish color distinguishing them from the standard copper issues.

Rarity Notes

Brass strikings are among the more available metal variants, though typically less common than copper. With 25 cataloged varieties, this merchant was a moderately active token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 630BZ-5B