1128

CANADA, Lower Canada, Magdalen Island (struck in Birmingham), copper "seal" penny token, 1815, ex-Ba

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / World Coins By Country Start Price:1,000.00 USD Estimated At:1,250.00 - 2,000.00 USD
CANADA, Lower Canada, Magdalen Island (struck in Birmingham), copper  seal  penny token, 1815, ex-Ba
SOLD
Sign In To View Winning Bid
This item SOLD at 2024 May 08 @ 17:05UTC-4 : AST/EDT
By registering for our auction, you agree to the terms and conditions at the time the auction will take place.
CANADA, Lower Canada, Magdalen Island (struck in Birmingham), copper "seal" penny token, 1815, ex-Baker. Breton-520; LC-1; KM-Tn1. 17.93 grams. AU- (choice grade) with lovely smooth surfaces in even copper color, positively identifiable as a business strike (particularly the reverse), and rare as such, with just a few marks from its brief time in circulation. This issue was commissioned by Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, who received the Magdalen Islands (west of Newfoundland, now part of Quebec) by King George III for his loyalty in the American Revolution. Its distinctive design of a seal on obverse and codfish filet on reverse succinctly embodies Lower Canada's chief maritime products. These pieces were made by Edward Thomason of London, who wrote the following in his 1845 memoir: "I had manufactured this year (1815) a large quantity of tokens for Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, Bart., who is the sole possessor and king, as he called himself, of the Magdalen Islands, situated in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in North America... As soon as a large quantity of these were struck off, Sir Isaac sailed off with them, packed in casks, and took with him a powerful coining press and machinery, and the dies ready engraved, to establish what he called a little mint for his subjects, to manufacture their coin for the future.". Pedigreed to the Warren Baker Collection of Canadian coins and tokens.