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1/2 Penny Currency F. McDermott
| Issuer | F. McDermott |
|---|---|
| Year | 1845-1855 |
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| Currency | Pound (1852-1860) |
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| Obverse description | Central field occupied by an armorial shield bearing a chevron charged with crosslets and flanked by two heraldic beasts in chief, surmounted by a crowned lion passant as crest. The shield is supported on either side by elaborate floral and foliate branches. A ribbon below carries the Latin motto HONOR ET VIRTUS in raised letters. The arc legend DEPOSITORY OF ARTS curves along the upper periphery in bold Latin capitals, all elements rendered in high relief with considerable artistic detail. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The entire reverse field is occupied by a multi-line merchant's advertisement legend in bold raised Latin capitals, reading F. McDERMOTT. / IMPORTER / OF ENGLISH, / FRENCH & GERMAN / FANCY GOODS, / KING ST. / SNT JOHN. N.B., with no additional decorative device. The lettering fills the field from upper to lower periphery in a typographic arrangement characteristic of Canadian merchant token issues of the mid-nineteenth century. The plain edge and absence of portraiture underscore the purely commercial function of this tradesman's token. |
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| Additional information |
F. McDermott operated a general store in New Brunswick during the period when small-denomination colonial coinage was chronically undersupplied across British North America. Merchants routinely issued their own copper tokens to make change, a practice tolerated by colonial authorities who had no practical alternative. McDermott's pieces circulated locally as functional substitutes for official halfpennies, which were in perpetually short supply throughout the 1840s and into the early 1850s.
Breton catalogued this piece as #914, placing it firmly within the documented New Brunswick merchant token series.