Just bought some coins off ebay and a 1793 halfpenny was among the lot. Being that I'm also into error coins I also noted that it has a double 9 in the date. First is this a rare coin or just a token?? It's a cool coin and is also has a dent in it.. I've got some others that are equally interesting, just wonder if there's any info out there?
Coins from that time period are often found with various errors. It was common actually - sometimes it was even more uncommon to find one without an error. They carry no particular value as a general rule because of this. But it does make for some interesting variety collecting.
Yeah it's interesting.. I also have a 1791 Rochdale halfpenny with a weaver on one side and a sheep or such on the other.
This, and your "Liverpool Halfpenny" are merchant tokens. Properly called "Provincial Tokens" we call them "Conders" after James Conder, one of the many merchants who contracted for their production and who created the first collector catalog of them. You can find the Conder Collectors online at: http://www.conderclub.homestead.com thanks to a recent COIN WORLD article: http://www.coinworld.com/news/032204/BW_0322.asp And they are popular here on COIN TALK! See "Coin from 1790" in this section. And you can find out even more than you cared to from this Chicago Coin Club Page about Conders: http://www.chicagocoinclub.org/projects/PiN/emt.html The author, Richard Doty, is a curator at the Smithsonian Institute. Michael
