token 1814.

Nice going on the token Guy.
There has been a few of these posted lately.
Like it states in MacKaydon link it wasn't a popular issue and one would have to the wonder what the powers to be were thinking when the design was approved.
 

pepperj said:
Nice going on the token Guy.
There has been a few of these posted lately.
Like it states in MacKaydon link it wasn't a popular issue and one would have to the wonder what the powers to be were thinking when the design was approved.
Click to expand...

These spread eagle tokens weren’t officially approved though. They were privately issued by an American merchant called Nye from Phillipsburg NJ, who had established a trading relationship out of Boston into Montreal, where he then re-located. With the encouragement and support of other merchants, he privately funded the issue of these tokens to alleviate the desperate shortage of small denomination coins. The British government had themselves done little to address the problem beyond sending occasional consignments of very worn coins that had been withdrawn from circulation in Britain.

The use of the ‘American’ eagle together with Britannia as design elements was Nye’s choice and initially not well-received in all areas, given the War of 1812 had just ended. It’s incorrectly reported in some sources that these pieces were overstruck on tokens originally issued by the Bristol merchant Samuel Guppy.

Nye’s tokens were issued between 1813-1815 with those dates, but imitations of them were re-issued between 1825-1837 using dies with the original 1813-1815 dates. The later imitations were ‘light-weighted’. Both types (of halfpenny) had a diameter of 28mm but the originals weighed 8.8g versus 6g for the later imitations.

There are other differences too, such as whether or not the date is divided by the tail feathers of the eagle and the size of lettering.
 

Last edited:
Tres bien! Very nice finds. Congrats!
 

Very cool token, congrats! :occasion14:
 

Red-Coat said:
These spread eagle tokens weren’t officially approved though. They were privately issued by an American merchant called Nye from Phillipsburg NJ, who had established a trading relationship out of Boston into Montreal, where he then re-located. With the encouragement and support of other merchants, he privately funded the issue of these tokens to alleviate the desperate shortage of small denomination coins. The British government had themselves done little to address the problem beyond sending occasional consignments of very worn coins that had been withdrawn from circulation in Britain.

The use of the ‘American’ eagle together with Britannia as design elements was Nye’s choice and initially not well-received in all areas, given the War of 1812 had just ended. It’s incorrectly reported in some sources that these pieces were overstruck on tokens originally issued by the Bristol merchant Samuel Guppy.

Nye’s tokens were issued between 1813-1815 with those dates, but imitations of them were re-issued between 1825-1837 using dies with the original 1813-1815 dates. The later imitations were ‘light-weighted’. Both types (of halfpenny) had a diameter of 28mm but the originals weighed 8.8g versus 6g for the later imitations.

There are other differences too, such as whether or not the date is divided by the tail feathers of the eagle and the size of lettering.
Click to expand...
Nice amount of info on that.
Interesting - thanks
 

Very nice finds, Congrats monsieur..
 

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