(No Date) Civil War Store Card F-960A-4a, OH

Coin Details

Description

Civil War merchant token bearing the name of J.W. Walton, located in Woodsfield, Ohio. The breadth of Ohio's Civil War token production reflects the state's diverse economy, from Cincinnati's river trade to Cleveland's Lake Erie shipping to interior manufacturing towns. J.W. Walton issued 6 die varieties, more than most Civil War merchants. The copper composition of this variety (Fuld 960A-4a) is common 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.

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, J.W. Walton was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 960A-4a