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Danish West Indies, small uniface brass 5 cents token, D.O.C., ca. 1890, unique, ex-Byrne, Higgie Pl

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / World Coins - World (A-G) Start Price:500.00 USD Estimated At:600.00 - 900.00 USD
Danish West Indies, small uniface brass 5 cents token, D.O.C., ca. 1890, unique, ex-Byrne, Higgie Pl
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Danish West Indies, small uniface brass 5 cents token, D.O.C., ca. 1890, unique, ex-Byrne, Higgie Plate. Higgie-408A. 4.41 grams. A spartan design with incuse D.O.C. above 5c stamped onto one side, the other side blank but both sides with toothed rims, evidently unique, as it seems the same piece that Higgie published in 1962 ("used by the Danish East India Company in the Danish West Indies") kept coming up for sale over the intervening decades. Most likely this was an issue that was generally melted down during WWII, and the meaning of the D.O.C. letters was lost in the process. Aged brass color with toning in details, minor spots of verdigris and a few old marks, VF overall, with offset ghosts of the C and 5 from previous stamping(s). Plate piece #408A in Higgie's The Colonial Coinage of the U.S. Virgin Islands (1962), pedigreed to the Christensen auction of May 1973 (lot #105) and to the Ray Byrne collection (Jess Peters, June 1975, lot #400), also pedigreed to the Hornung (Copenhagen) auction of October 1983 (lot #456).