British Guiana 1838 stiver token KM-Tn1
This specimen was lot 75221 in Stack's Bowers June 2026 World Premier Collectors Choice Auction (Costa Mesa, CA, June 2026), where it sold for $89. The catalog description[1] noted, "BRITISH GUIANA. Copper Stiver Token, 1838. PCGS VF-30." Altho this token does not state its origin, Numista comments, "One Stiver, Issued by Mr. Balgarnie, Dry Goods Merchant, Water Street, Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana), 1838. Mint not recorded. Significance: The reference to the tokens being of pure copper and preferable to paper is to local government paper money, which the government would not recall and had therefore little or no value." The colony was then known as Essequibo & Demerary and was based on slave plantations producing cotton and sugar. Abolition arrived in 1838. Twenty stivers made a guilder.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 14.0-15.5 g, copper, 33 mm diameter.
Catalog reference: KM-Tn1; Prid-60.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- Pridmore, F., The Coins of the British Commonwealth of Nations to the end of the Reign of George VI 1952: Part 3, Bermuda, British Guiana, British Honduras and the British West Indies, London: Spink & Son, 1965.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, June 2026 World Premier Collectors Choice Auction - Selections from the L.E. Bruun Collection, the Richard Margolis Collection and the Kirk Menczer Collection of Republican Reales Minors, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2026.
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