George III copper halfpenny 1770s CONTEMPORARY COUNTER FEIT, NON-REGAL. EVASION,

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George III copper halfpenny 1770s CONTEMPORARY COUNTER FEIT, NON-REGAL. EVASION, Description Non-regal, Contemporary, crude forge ray of a George III halfpenny, date indiscernible - struck over a 'Palmer's' Mail-coach halfpenny issued by John Fittler in the late 1790s. (Also included an actual mail-coach halfpenny - D&H 363). Two pieces. The London token can be seen clearly coming through the non-regal halfpenny on both sides - so much so that Britannia seems to be sitting on an up-turned stagecoach ! John Fittler (the JF in front of George's chin ) ran the mail-coach depot in London and issued the under token. The line was an express route to Bristol which J. Palmer had established The interesting point about this piece is it proves that the non-regal halfpenny, which by the style would have been dated in the 1770s, was in fact made in the late 1790s when this mail-coach token, on which it is struck, was issued. Important diagnostic piece !!! In the reign of King George III (1760 - 1820) the first issue of halfpennies did not come until 10 years after the king's accession, in 1770. Counter feiting was rampant, and in 1771 the issuance of counter feet copper coin became a felony; this however had little effect and for the next twenty years or so the majority of copper so-called coins in circulation were forge ires. In March 1782 a female counter feiter was hanged, then fixed to a stake and burned before the debtor's door at Newgate prison in London. In a letter to Lord Hawkesbury of 14 April 1789, Matthew Boulton commented " In the course of my journeys, I observe that I receive upon an average two-thirds counter feit halfpence for change at toll-gates, etc., and I believe the evil is daily increasing, as the spurious money is carried into circulation by the lowest class of manufacturers, who pay with it the principal part of the wages of the poor people they employ". Following the end of the war in 1783 British counter feiters saw the American Colonies as a prime market, especially since passing counter feit coppers had been made a felony in Britain in 1771. Thus a flood of these counter feits made their way to America. In fact, Newman has argued as early as 1785 or 1786 some varieties of counter feit halfpence were produced in Britain solely for export to America. He has shown the five known varieties of 1785 counter feit halfpence (from three obverse and three reverse dies) share the same letter punches (including what appears to be a specific broken R punch). Newman went on to assigned their manufacture to Britain because the same letter punches had been used to produce an obverse die for George III counter feit Irish halfpence. Only one Irish coin made from that die has been discovered and that item has no date on the reverse but rather, the reverse contains a brockage, or inverse image, of the obverse! The evidence that these punches were used on an Irish counter feet and the lack of any evidence connecting the punches to America led Newman to to suspect a British origin for coppers. Further Newman concluded the 1785 counter feets were made solely for export because no examples of 1785 counter feit halfpence have ever been discovered in English collections, rather all known examples have been found in worn condition in older American collections. Newman went on to suggest Massachusetts as a port of entry for the coppers. The Massachusetts Act of 1750 prohibiting importation of counter feit coppers expired on November 1, 1785. No new law was enacted for eight months creating a "window of opportunity" for British counter feiters. The pervasiveness of counter feit British coppers is also borne out by the archaeological evidence. The John Bridges Tavern, located just northwest of Ft. Ligonier in western Pennsylvania, was in operation ca. 1775-1795. In the excavation of that site 25 copper coins and four unidentifiable copper disks were unearthed along with 9 pieces of Spanish silver. Fourteen of the sixteen halfpence were counter feit (there were 11 counter feit ... read more

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