Middlesex (1794) half penny token D&H-842b

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Stack's Bowers February 2024 Collector's Choice sale, lot 74840
SB224-74840r.jpg

This specimen was lot 74840 in Stack's Bowers Collector's Choice sale (Costa Mesa, CA, February 2024), where it sold for $288. The catalog description[1] noted, "GREAT BRITAIN. Trade Tokens. Middlesex. Spence's Copper 1/2 Penny Token, ND (ca. 1790s). NGC MS-65 Brown. Edge: Plain. Featuring a somewhat shaggy porcine creature trampling upon elements of royalty, this Gem evokes the clashing sentiments of the era." Numista comments, "Thomas Spence, (1750-1814), Newcastle schoolmaster and writer who moved to London in 1792, where he set up shop as a bookseller and became an active member of the London Corresponding Society. He allowed his home and shop to be used for meetings and, in May 1794, was arrested along with a dozen others, and remitted to Newgate Prison for his efforts. Upon release he entered the business of selling tokens, publishing a handbill listing twenty obverse and twenty reverse dies that could be ordered paired in any combination, and authoring an early guide to the series, The Coin Collector's Companion in 1795. He issued and sold a variety of tokens before quitting the business in late 1796; his stock and dies passing to Skidmore where they continued to be muled amongst themselves and with others then in Skidmore's possession."

Recorded mintage: unknown.

Specification: copper, 8.62 g, 29 mm diameter.

Catalog reference: D&H-842b.

Source:

  • Conder, James. An arrangement of Provincial Coins, tokens, and medalets issued in Great Britain, Ireland, and the colonies, within the last twenty years, from the farthing to the penny size. Ipswich: G. Jermyn, 1798.
  • Dalton, Richard, and Samuel H. Hamer. The Provincial Token Coinage of the 18th Century. 1910-1917. reprinted 2015 by Thomas Publications, Gettysburg, PA.
  • [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, February 2024 World Collectors Choice Online Auction, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2024.

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