I saw this auction for one of the worst looking coins I've ever seen bid up to more than $100. I was wondering what the deal is with this? I'm assuming it must be extremely rare. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Canada-Blac...090&pid=100015&prg=1006&rk=1&sd=400376901266&
This token is listed in Charlton's Canadian Colonial Tokens 2nd edition as very rare. There is no price history given. The more common variety, BL-24A, shows a price range of 40 - 125 dollars depending on condition. The 2nd edition was published in 1990 and prices have certainly risen across the board since then. These tokens now have a large collector base in the US, as well as Canada. Most all Blacksmith tokens look heavily worn, as they were privately coined (by Blacksmith's?) to resemble well used circulating issues.
When you have six different bidders battling into the hundreds of dollars, you can figure it's something special, and even attributed, not a "dollar" coin...
I would never have guessed someone would get $237 for a coin that looks like that. Must be rare indeed.
This is a crude imitation of the Ships Colonies & Commerce token which is known as one of the "Blacksmith Tokens". I only own one and it is the most common. These were deliberately made to appear as worn coinage so they could blend in with the many different coppers of the day. Here is mine, imitating a King George III halfpenny. Instead of Georgius III REX the designer being sarcastic and disrespectful of the King engraved Glorious III VIS. Mine is actually in pretty nice condition, maybe choice VF or even better since most of the design that appears to be worn away was not ever there in the dies used to begin with. These remind me of the Connecticut Colonial coins. I was watching that token. I am really interested to see what the 1820 Bust Harp Blacksmith token will fetch that may have been cleaned. I bet over $1,000.00 is very possible.
