Catalog
1/2 Penny Regal Imitation - George III left
| Issuer | Canadian provinces |
|---|---|
| Year | 1835 |
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| Currency | Pound |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | A crude and roughly executed rendition of Britannia seated to the right, holding a long spear in her right hand and a spray of leaves or olive branch in her left. The figure is set without a formal exergue line, and the overall die engraving is coarse and irregular, characteristic of imitation or counterfeit halfpenny tokens struck for use in the Canadian provinces. No reverse legend is present. A shield element is suggested at the lower left of the figure. |
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| Additional information |
These "regal imitation" pieces were produced by private token issuers — primarily British manufacturers supplying the colonial trade — to fill a chronic small-change shortage that plagued British North America throughout the early nineteenth century. Official regal copper from the Royal Mint arrived too slowly and in insufficient quantities, leaving commerce to fend for itself. Merchants and banks tolerated, and often actively imported, these unofficial pieces because the alternative was conducting small transactions by barter or cutting larger coins.
CCT BL-3 places this piece within a well-documented family of Birmingham-made tokens. The left-facing portrait was a deliberate archaism by 1835 — George III had been dead fifteen years.