Middlesex (1795) half penny token D&H-716

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Stack's Bowers May 2024 Collector's Choice sale, lot 32501
SB524-32501r.jpg
Steve Album sale 55, lot 902

The first specimen was lot 32501 in Stack's Bowers Collector's Choice sale (Costa Mesa, CA, May 2024), where it sold for $384. The catalog description[1] noted, "GREAT BRITAIN. Trade Tokens. Middlesex. Spence's Copper 1/2 Penny Token, ND (ca. 1790s). NGC MS-64 Red Brown. Obverse: Ass carrying bushels symbolizing rent and taxes; Reverse: three lines of text within surrounding legend. Edge: SPENCE DEALER IN COINS LONDON. Struck to crisp definition and exhibiting much original red-brown coloration that is highlighted by glossy luster." Wikipedia comments, "Thomas Spence (2 July [O.S. 21 June] 1750 – 8 September 1814) was an English Radical and advocate of the common ownership of land and a democratic equality of the sexes. Spence was one of the leading revolutionaries of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was born in poverty and died the same way, after long periods of imprisonment, in 1814." He is responsible for the issue of many of the tokens in Conder's book. The second specimen was lot 902 in Steve Album Auction 55 (Santa Rosa, CA, May 2026), where it sold for $336. The catalog description[2] noted, "GREAT BRITAIN: AE halfpenny token, ND (ca. 1790), D&H-716 (Middlesex), Conder token, Spence's, ass facing, carrying two baskets to either side labeled TAX'S and RENTS with I WAS AN ASS TO BEAR THE FIRST PAIR around // THOs SPENCE / Sir THOs MORE / THOs PAINE, NOTED ADVOCATES FOR THE RIGHTS OF MAN, SPENCE DEALER IN COINS LONDON on edge, lightly lustrous with traces of original red color, PCGS graded MS63 BN. Thomas Spence (1750-1814) was a London-based coin dealer who issued satirical and subversive political tokens between 1795 and 1797."

Recorded mintage: unknown.

Specification: copper.

Catalog reference: D&H-716.

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, May 2024 World Collectors Choice Online Auction, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2024.
  • [2]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Hanbing Feng, Auction 55, featuring Selections from the Swamperbob Gurney Collection of Cap & Ray 8 Reales, the Kenneth A. Bovenkamp Collection of Ottoman Coins and the 1914 Collection of World Coins, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2026.

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