Just Curious: Does Anyone Collect The Series Bowman Identified As "Borderline Tokens."

In 1817, the British parliament passed "An Act to Prevent the Issuing and Circulating of Pieces of Copper or Other Metal, Usually Called Tokens", making producing or issuing tokens illegal in Britain after January 1, 1818. Thus, the token-making factories wishing to stay in business needed to be more clandestine in their production, and needed new customers outside of Britain to sell their products to.

This token bears no date, placing it under suspicion of being produced after 1817 (since a token accurately dated, say, "1820" would be in clear violation of the law). It almost certainly would have been produced with the aim of it being shipped off to the colonies, and the Canadian colonies would have been the most lucrative option. Whether any actually made it to Canada and whether they found any kind of acceptance in circulation if/when they arrived, is what is up for debate, and largely relies on historical and archaeological evidence: are any such tokens ever found by Canadian metal detectors, or in hoards of otherwise-Canadian tokens? Do they get mentioned in the press as being tokens to beware of? Their lack of acceptance as "mainstream" Canadian tokens implies that back when the "greats" were compiling their catalogues, no such evidence was available to them. And unless new evidence has come to light (such as metal detecting finds), the status must remain questionable.

Other than Bowman 13, NS-22B British Guiana Stiver, I am not aware of any metal detector finds in Canada. I have searched Kleeberg's Numismatic Finds of the Americas and have not found any Bowmans.

As for countermarks, I am aware of the "TK" countermark on Bowman 24 Brutus, and a couple of Devins & Bolton countermarks on Bowman 26 Great Britain / Commerce.

I have the three Bowmans mentioned above, and also have Bowman 19 Isle of Man "Publick" as it relates to PE-9B, but otherwise have not expanded my collection to the other Bowmans.

Myself and another collector have done a fair amount of research into the series. The original Bowman article was published in the September 1966 edition of the Canadian Numismatic Journal. Fred did not give an explanation as to where that the information came from, other than what would have been seen in dealers junk boxes. We attempted to go back and search 19th century references in Canadian, British, American and even German catalogues. The usual sources, Breton, Leroux, Sandham, McLachlan, and Batty. This was also backed by 19th century US and German auctions. Some pieces can definitely be said to have circulated in Canada and others are questionable. The definite pieces were pieces that were commonly found through metal detectorist websites where finds are reported, some have already been included in the Charlton Canadian Colonial Tokens, others probably will be. The less definite were the pieces found in US and German 19th century auction catalogues where they did not really know the piece, so the attitude seemed to be lets label it as Canadian. The series still has a small almost cult like following. Only 28 type pieces involved, some common, some scarce, and one that is almost impossible to obtain.

to the Community, BritNumis!