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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cwtokenman, post: 80794, member: 2100&quot;]A very good question, Ron. One for which I could not find a definitive answer in my references, so I will give it a shot off the top of my head. First, the answer may lie in how meanings of words may have changed with time, so that a past meaning may have become obscure and/or discontinued. I agree that our modern day language would find few people, especially those outside the hobby, applying the term &quot;card&quot; to any sort of token or round metallic object. The following are present day terms to describe three types of Civil War tokens:</p><p><br /></p><p>The definition of a Civil War Store Card is that it is a type of cwt on which the issuer&#039;s (merchant&#039;s) name, initials, or business appears on at least one side of the token. </p><p><br /></p><p>The other main type is a Patriotic, which is an anonymous token (no issuer&#039;s name, business or initials). These frequently display a patriotic device and/or patriotic description. </p><p><br /></p><p>There are also what are known as half cards, which have one patriotic die and one store card die. The store card dies used to make this type of token advertises goods and services in words or illustrations without listing a merchant&#039;s name (or initials) that would automatically classify the token as a store card.</p><p><br /></p><p>My feeling is that the term &quot;card&quot; or &quot;store card&quot; may have been applied to tokens as in reference to their use as either a business or advertising card. These tokens would have been much more durable than paper or cardboard, not to mention that the metal itself had value, so it would not be as likely to be thrown away (and one cent was not something to be throw away in those days). More bang for the buck, so to speak, when compared to less durable mediums. </p><p><br /></p><p>One thing I can say for certain though, as far as why they are referred to as &quot;cards&quot; is that is exactly what people of that period referred to them as - metallic cards (in a general sense). So, it would make perfect sense therefore, to refer to such cards which were manufactured for store use as a &quot;store card&quot;. As an example, look at ebay auction 8345587597, hopefully which the following link will take you to. Lanphear was a die sinker in Cincinnati, and was a maker of such custom cards. He was also rather prolific in varieties advertising his own business, of which I counted 214 token id numbers. Some of these advertise that he manufactures store cards as well as metallic cards.</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/1863-Cincinnati-Ohio-OH-WK-Lanphear-Die-Sinkers-Cards_W0QQitemZ8345587597QQcategoryZ3456QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://cgi.ebay.com/1863-Cincinnati-Ohio-OH-WK-Lanphear-Die-Sinkers-Cards_W0QQitemZ8345587597QQcategoryZ3456QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem" rel="nofollow">http://cgi.ebay.com/1863-Cincinnati-Ohio-OH-WK-Lanphear-Die-Sinkers-Cards_W0QQitemZ8345587597QQcategoryZ3456QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem</a></p><p><br /></p><p>As a side note, this particular token also is one of many that contained spelling errors as there are two L&#039;s in metallic. Hopefully you will find this to be a satisfactory answer to your question.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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