Menu
What's new
Find's Treasure Forums

Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!

You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.

Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.

Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.

Click here to register!

Need Support Help?

Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you

Found A Civil War Token / Store Card Yesterday

E-Trac-Ohio

E-Trac-Ohio

Well-known member
I went back to an old abandoned house yesterday - that I had hunted last summer.
Theres a lot of junk metal around the house and I want to see if the 6" excellerator coiI could find any coins that I missed last summer.
I found what I thought was a really encrusted Indian Head Cent - but when I got home I could see multiple lines of text on one side and a shield design with stars around the edge on the other side.
After 10 miniutes in the Electrolysis Bath I could see that it was a very old looking Token.
It's in better condition then it looks in the photo - couldn't get a clear picture because of glare - approx. 75% of the lettering on this piece is still readable.

A little internet research told me that it was a "Civil War Store Card " from W.H. Brooks Jr. of Fort Wayne, Indiana.
I still have to do some more research - but I believe these "Store Cards" were given out the same way we give out business cards today.

I didn't get the Mercury Dime on this hunt - I just put it in the photo to show the size of the Brooks Store Card.

I found the third photo on the internet - this is exactly what my piece looked like - before it spent 150 years underground !

HH --- Mark
 
You're still bringing it home Mark! This looks to be an awesome year for ya! Great find, that token! Thanks for the pictures too!

NebTrac
 
I'm not exactly an expert on Tokens & Store Cards - last night I read ...

That during the Civil War - Store Cards like the one I found above were used in place of US minted coins.
There was a huge metal shortage because of the war and the government could not mint enough coins for the general public - so privately owned companies started producing the Store Cards.
The US government passed a law in 1863 making it illegal to manufacture Store Cards - so - the one above should be 150 years old - or very close to it.

HH --- Mark
 
Nice Finds! Congratulations!!
 
I like seeing cool stuff like your token. Thanks for the post.

Rich (Utah)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top