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hello all, this copper coin was given to me by a friend, but am at a loss to know exactly what it is. i already know what your're thinking... that it's a machin's mill half penny or a nova eborac [new york] half penny. it is dateless, but the orientations of the obverse and reverse figures don't add up. similar pieces were made around 1787. i checked out the red book and have done some searches, but nothing yet. could it be a pattern piece? thanks, and hh,
More background as well as diagrams by Wood who originally catalogued these coins in the early 1900's.
Because of the orentation of the head (faceng left) I mistakenly thought that it was a counterfeit of a George II halfpenny (on British coins, the heads of each monarch faces in the opposite direction of their predecesor). Wood figured that the forger used the coin as the model as he was making the dies, thus both the bust of George III and seated Britannia on the reverse side face the opposite way as on the original coin.
From the information at this site and the diagrams, I would guess you have a "Wood 1" variation, believed to have been made in Montreal, Canada in 1832 thereabouts by a blacksmith who made up a pocketful of these coins whenever he wanted to go into town for a good time.
how informative, steve. i had no idea so many counterfeits existed. it seems it was common in the old days before the secret service came along! i thank you sir for your help. i really appreciate it. hh,
...now-a-days pennies are scattered around every place you look and kids throw throw them at each other like they had no value at all.
I've heard that before the American revolution, there were more counterfeit half-pennies in circulation than authentic British issue. In Canada up into the mid-1800's, there was a real coin shortage, and just about anything that was copper and shaped like a coin was passed as currency.
Depending on the type and rarety, some of these are quite valuable. A couple on ebay:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&dfsp=32&catref=C6&from=R2&satitle=blacksmith&sacat=149940%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=ZIP%2FPostal&sabfmts=1&saobfmts=insif&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=32&fsoo=2
