Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1/2 'Penny' Griqua Town
| Issuer | London Missionary Society |
|---|---|
| Year | 1814-1816 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Griqua Town Coinage (1814-1816) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Central device depicting the emblem of the London Missionary Society: a dove in flight carrying an olive branch in its beak, rendered in low relief against an unadorned field. The design is restrained and emblematic in character, consistent with the missionary origin of the issue. No legend or inscription appears on this face. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | GRIQUA 1/2 TOWN (inverted) |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The London Missionary Society had no business minting coins — and legally, it didn't. These pieces were struck in Birmingham by the Soho Mint as a private trade token to address a chronic small-change shortage at Griqua Town, the mission settlement established among the Griqua people near the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The Cape Colony's formal currency simply didn't reach that far.
The LMS issued both this half and a full penny denomination between 1814 and 1816, making them among the earliest struck tokens associated with the South African interior.