(No Date) Copper Civil War Store Card F-260A-2a, Wm. Brooks IN

Coin Details

Description

Merchant token from Wm. Brooks of Elkhart, Indiana, cataloged as Fuld 260A-2a. Indiana was an important agricultural and manufacturing state, with merchants producing store cards as emergency currency when federal coinage was hoarded. Wm. Brooks issued 5 die varieties, more than most Civil War merchants. Struck in copper, this die combination (Fuld 260A-2a) is common. Undated Civil War tokens like this one circulated alongside dated issues during the 1862-1864 period. 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 5 cataloged varieties, Wm. Brooks was a minor token issuer.

Cross References

Fuld 260A-2a