(No Date) Copper Civil War Store Card F-740A-1a, J. Kreutzer IN

Coin Details

Description

Merchant token from J. Kreutzer of Indiana, cataloged as Fuld 740A-1a. Indiana was an important agricultural and manufacturing state, with merchants producing store cards as emergency currency when federal coinage was hoarded. The copper composition of this variety (Fuld 740A-1a) is common for this merchant. This undated token was struck circa 1862-1864 during the wartime coin shortage. Many Civil War tokens share common reverse dies, as die sinkers paired merchant-specific obverses with stock patriotic or advertising reverses. Civil War tokens addressed a practical problem: the wartime disappearance of federal small change made daily transactions nearly impossible without private substitutes. The Fuld catalog documents thousands of distinct die combinations for Civil War store cards, making this one of the most complex series in American numismatics.

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 1 cataloged varieties, J. Kreutzer was a limited producer of Civil War tokens.

Cross References

Fuld 740A-1a