Posted 06/29/2023 04:30 am
A little late to join this thread, but I like this series and have some info to offer.
It is important to know that all of the Bust and Harps, except for the blacksmith varieties and the very strange Courteau 20 (McLachlan 1), are die-linked. In McLachlan's article, he proposes that while all were struck by a single Canadian firm, the obverse die for his Nos 16-19 was engraved in Canada due to its crudity. He also notes three other obverse dies (Co 1/14, 2, 19; McL 21/20, 22, 23) that are equally crude and I guess he is implying these are Canadian-engraved dies too. He proposes that the two other obverses, of better workmanship, were engraved in England. (This is not counting the super rare original copper varieties that were apparently struck in England as well.)
However, as all varieties are die-linked, they were presumably all struck in Canada by a single firm. The same firm was also responsible for the production of a large number of imitation Tiffin Tokens, evidenced by the hoard discovered in the St. Lawrence River of uncirculated examples of these two varieties together (which I believe we have discussed before!) A close comparison of number punches used for certain varieties in the Tiffin series will reveal that some of the same "1", "8", "2" punches were used for the Bust and Harp varieties.
Who were the guys that struck these? There is absolutely nothing known about them as far as I can tell! Quite interesting, as this was clearly a massive counterfeiting operation considering that the imitation Tiffins and Bust & Harps were by far the two most common tokens in circulation during the late 1830s. The famous Bank of Montreal hoard, apparently comprising confiscated coppers from this time period, had about 3000 imitation Tiffins and 800 Bust and Harps out of approximately 5000 pieces total. The Ships Colonies and Commerce series made up another 600-700 specimens. This is recounted by McLaclan in his 1889 article "A Hoard of Canadian Coppers" in the Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal. The St. Lawrence River hoard found in the 1980s also numbered in the many thousands of pieces.
It is important to know that all of the Bust and Harps, except for the blacksmith varieties and the very strange Courteau 20 (McLachlan 1), are die-linked. In McLachlan's article, he proposes that while all were struck by a single Canadian firm, the obverse die for his Nos 16-19 was engraved in Canada due to its crudity. He also notes three other obverse dies (Co 1/14, 2, 19; McL 21/20, 22, 23) that are equally crude and I guess he is implying these are Canadian-engraved dies too. He proposes that the two other obverses, of better workmanship, were engraved in England. (This is not counting the super rare original copper varieties that were apparently struck in England as well.)
However, as all varieties are die-linked, they were presumably all struck in Canada by a single firm. The same firm was also responsible for the production of a large number of imitation Tiffin Tokens, evidenced by the hoard discovered in the St. Lawrence River of uncirculated examples of these two varieties together (which I believe we have discussed before!) A close comparison of number punches used for certain varieties in the Tiffin series will reveal that some of the same "1", "8", "2" punches were used for the Bust and Harp varieties.
Who were the guys that struck these? There is absolutely nothing known about them as far as I can tell! Quite interesting, as this was clearly a massive counterfeiting operation considering that the imitation Tiffins and Bust & Harps were by far the two most common tokens in circulation during the late 1830s. The famous Bank of Montreal hoard, apparently comprising confiscated coppers from this time period, had about 3000 imitation Tiffins and 800 Bust and Harps out of approximately 5000 pieces total. The Ships Colonies and Commerce series made up another 600-700 specimens. This is recounted by McLaclan in his 1889 article "A Hoard of Canadian Coppers" in the Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal. The St. Lawrence River hoard found in the 1980s also numbered in the many thousands of pieces.
