Catalog
1/2 Penny Wellington Waterloo - ship design
| Issuer | Lower Canada |
|---|---|
| Year | 1815 |
| Type | Emergency coin |
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| Obverse description | A fully-rigged sailing warship depicted in profile, sailing to the right, its multiple masts carrying furled and set sails with rigging rendered in fine detail. The hull sits low on stylized waves indicated by horizontal lines at the base of the design. The entire device is contained within a beaded border that encircles the coin's flat field, with no legend present on this face. |
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| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Issued in the year of Waterloo, this token entered circulation through the acute small-change shortage that plagued Lower Canada throughout the early nineteenth century — the colonial administration repeatedly failed to supply adequate regal coinage, leaving merchants and private issuers to fill the gap. Wellington tokens of this period flooded in from British merchants exploiting that vacuum, often struck cheaply in Birmingham and shipped across the Atlantic as commercial ventures rather than official monetary instruments.
Breton 1003 is among the more frequently encountered of the Wellington series, though die alignment and planchet quality vary considerably across the type.