(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-765I-1a, PA

Coin Details

Description

Fuld 765I-1a — store card of J.C. & W.H. Lippincott, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was the Union's industrial heartland, with Philadelphia as a manufacturing center and Pittsburgh as an iron and steel producer. With 4 known varieties, J.C. & W.H. Lippincott produced a modest number of token types. The copper composition of this variety (Fuld 765I-1a) is common for this merchant. Undated Civil War tokens like this one circulated alongside dated issues during the 1862-1864 period. The token trade was competitive, with die sinkers in New York, Cincinnati, and other cities vying for merchant orders across the region. Between 1862 and 1864, Northern merchants produced millions of private tokens to compensate for the disappearance of federal coinage. The cent-sized format was chosen deliberately to match the federal Indian Head cent, the coin most conspicuously absent from daily commerce.

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 4 cataloged varieties, J.C. & W.H. Lippincott was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 765I-1a