Civil War Tokens and Tradesmen’s Cards
Authors: Hetrich & Guttag
Tokens used during the United States Civil War and produced by a number of private manufacturers circulated in place of federally produced small change, replacing the otherwise hoarded coins. These tokens included advertising information about local merchants and a variety of patriotic images and slogans.
While the guide books by George and Melvin Fuld are the most commonly used guides for these items, the book by George Hetrich and Julius Guttag was the first to catalog the tokens in the divisions as they are currently described.
The authors come from two major numismatic backgrounds – that of collector and dealer. George Hetrich was an early collector of Civil War Tokens, in addition to United States federal issue coins, including proof sets. Julius Guttag was the numismatic half of the Guttag Brothers company in New York, which published many books covering individual United States coin series in addition to the sale of numismatic materials.