(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-630M-12GO, NY

Coin Details

Description

Civil War store card from New York, cataloged as Fuld 630M-12GO. New York state generated the second-largest body of Civil War token issues, concentrated in New York City but extending to Albany, Troy, Buffalo, and smaller commercial centers. This piece is an overstrike struck over a host coin, an 1863 Indian Head cent. Traces of the original design may be visible beneath the new impressions. This undated token was struck circa 1862-1864 during the wartime coin shortage. Token production was a specialized trade — die sinkers maintained catalogs of stock dies that merchants could pair with custom obverses. Merchant-issued tokens circulated as substitutes for scarce federal coinage throughout the Northern states between 1862 and 1864. Gold pieces were struck as special presentation items and are almost never encountered. Civil War store cards are collected both as numismatic items and as historical documents of wartime American commerce.

Rarity Notes

Gold strikings of Civil War tokens are among the rarest of all metal variants, produced in tiny quantities for presentation purposes or the collector market. Overstrike varieties are generally scarcer than tokens struck on blank planchets, as they required sourcing and re-striking existing coins. With 40 cataloged varieties, this merchant was a substantial producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 630M-12GO