(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-645B-2A, OH

Coin Details

Description

G.W. McLean of N. Hampton issued this token as emergency currency during the Civil War coin shortage. Ohio produced more varieties of Civil War store cards than any other state, driven by Cincinnati's role as the largest inland city and a Union Army supply hub. G.W. McLean issued 6 die varieties, more than most Civil War merchants. This copper striking (Fuld 645B-2A) is common among the known varieties. 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. 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 6 cataloged varieties, G.W. McLean was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 645B-2A