Post Your Canadian Tokens

This "Field Marshal Wellington" piece is a very recent upgrade for the Anglo-Canadian section of my British tokens collection...arrived just yesterday. It's struck over the halfpenny version of that Bristol farthing token I posted on 09/12/21, above.

Withers 1498; Davis 89; Breton 972; Charlton WE-2B2 or -2B3, depending on flan thickness.


With the exception of the unobtainable WE-2C's. I've got the complete Field Marshal series, and here's the best-looking of them...although I'm not a fan of the "bolder" legends. This one looks to have been struck on a virgin flan, which (according to Withers) is encountered less frequently.

Withers 1497a; Davis 88; Breton 971; Charlton WE-2A1.

Nice examples!

Here's my own WE-2B, which is nowhere near as nice as yours!

Another interesting thing with these is that the reverse appears to be that of WE-1 but with laurel leaves stamped over the 1813 date in the exergue. The tops of the original date poke through the leaves.

a couple of counterfeits,

I've handled both, the 'brass' 1854 wouldn't fool many, but the 1852 is a little sneakier.



https://www.ebay.com/itm/384425859142

https://www.ebay.com/itm/384425716446

It was interesting to watch the spirited live-auction bidding inspired by this common one-penny Irish merchant's token at The Canadian Numismatics Company's "Criterion V" sale last night. The grocer (per Davis) in question, one Edward Bewley of Dublin, issued his pennies in 1816 and used them not only as advertising for his business but to celebrate, or perhaps capitalize on, the widespread respect for and adulation of the Dublin-born Wellington and his many military victories, including his defeat of Napoleon's forces at Waterloo in 1815. The use of the 1814 date below Wellington's effigy is taken as a commemoration of Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley's elevation to the Dukedom, which was newly created especially for him and bestowed upon him in May of that year.

The designation as "Bowman 12" identifies this piece as a "Borderline token," so it's believed to have circulated in Canada, like a couple of dozen other Irish tokens and Wellington types, either contemporaneous with or a bit later than its 1816 issue date. That conjecture seems well-supported by the interest shown in it last night, in the middle of this week's five-session auction of 1,548 lots of Canadian and world coins, tokens, and paper money.


In any event, last night's bidding opened at CDN $25 and the token worked its way slowly through the small bid increments as mail, online, phone, and live bidders ran it up to the final hammer price of CAD $161. While I'm not a c/m collector, it seemed pretty obvious that all the value in this token resides in its countermarks -- OHP and NHV, to all appearances -- as without them its underlying condition puts it closer to a $5 filler. My own example (below) is a solid gVF in my estimation, and I acquired it for about £15 perhaps ten years ago.

Dublin: Withers 1810, Davis 10 (34mm, 16g.)

The countermarks hold the key to this mystery, I think. Does anyone here know what they mean? Why would the auction house make note of the OHP c/m but not the NHV? Could this be some sort of mob mentality in action -- auction fever? -- or are the c/m's truly collectible for some content-related significance?

Just to cast a wider net, I've cross-posted this from the Countermarks forum. where I hope someone recognizes these c/m's and why they're such a value multiplier for this otherwise ho-hum Hiberno-Canadian token.



Best to all!
Tom

Very nice!

I always enjoy seeing what people do with coins (other than spend or collect).

Here's a little project I did for a friend. While not as functional as a pasta roller it did have the desired effect