Spyderco Forums

Manixguy@1994 wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 07, 2022 6:53 am

This coin has perplexed me for years , no date ? Private mint ? I’m clueless . Dan

Manixguy@1994 wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 07, 2022 11:34 am

Thank you , I did some minor checking after posting. I found same info . My wife found it in a gravel driveway several years ago by an old house .

The Meat man wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 19, 2022 9:44 pm

Here is a British coin from my collection.

This one is interesting. In the early 1800's, the British province of Nova Scotia was in need of coinage, but they were denied permission to mint their own. So, they had copper "tokens" minted instead, to fill the need. It was abiding by the letter if not the spirit of the law.
In 1848, Nova Scotia became the first of all British provinces to be granted self-rule. This gave them - finally - the authority to mint their own coinage. However, it remained several years before the composition and weight of the tokens were brought into official standards, so until then the copper coins were still called "tokens", rather than cents or pennies.

This particular coin is often praised as one of the most beautiful of all North American coins. The portrait of Queen Victoria is in wonderful style, and the reverse design is also skillfully executed with a nice sense of balance and proportion. The nickname "Mayflower Token" is derived from the reverse design featuring a mayflower plant.