If You Like Davis/Withers Copper Tokens, 1811-20, Here's A Double Rarity.

This is the very rare 1815 2d token from Rugeley (Staffordshire), 41mm in diameter and weighing in at 39.3 grams. It's Withers 965 and Davis 93, and the issuer was Edward Barker, chemist and manufacturer. The product promoted on this token -- the "hydraulic blowing machine" -- was advertised for HVAC applications, and also as an upgrade from the manual bellows needed to keep up the heat and intensity of the flames used in iron foundries and welding.

But perhaps rarer than the token itself is the presence of two of them side-by-side on my scanner!



How often has anyone casually collecting this series seen even one of these, let alone two, in the same room?

The short version of that story, which dates back to 2018, is that I'd already bought the one on the right at auction when the second one arrived a few months later by accident. Yup...it was supposed to be a high-bore Lemmonsly Mill penny (W823b, a RRR edge variety) that was part of a group I'd purchased from a UK dealer whom we all know. Somehow the tokens ended up in each other's packets by mistake, so we had to do a transatlantic swap before the correct hole was filled in my collection...sort of a protracted timeline, but a happy ending all around.

Here's the keeper:



Wash your hands, everybody!
Tom