Civil War tokens are actually privately minted token coins that were distributed in the Unites States between the years 1861 and 1864. The widespread use of these tokens was a direct result of a shortage of government issues cents during the civil war and were mainly used in the Northeast and Midwest.
On april 22nd, 1864, the United States congress passed a law prohibiting the issue of any one or two cents, tokens or devices as currency, making the use of Civil War Tokens illegal. Later that year, on June 8th, Congress passed an addtional law that forbade all private coinage.
Civil war tokens and divided into three main catagories, store cards, patriotic tokens and sutler tokens.
“It is well that war is so terrible, or we would grow too fond of it.” – Robert E. Lee
Patriotic Tokens
These Civil War tokens typically displayed a patriotic slogan or image on one or both sides of the token, with the majority being minted in Union states, often very pro-union.
Among the best-known varieties of Patriotic tokens are the “Dix tokens”. They are so named in reference to John Adams Dix, the 1861 Secretary of the Treasury.
Store Cards
These differ from Patriotic tokens in that either on or both sides were minted with the name and/or location of a privately owned business. Businesses that had the financial ability would create two custom dies, with both being an advertisement for the business, otherwise, only a single side would show business information.
Sutler Tokens
Similar to Store Card tokens, Civil War Sutler Tokens would bear the name of a particular army unit (usually regiment) rather than that of a business, as well as the namoe of the sutler who conducted transaction with the regiment. Sutler tokens are tyically the rarest of the Civil War Tokens.
