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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;brg5658, post: 1917869, member: 29751&quot;]That information in the Wikipedia article wasn&#039;t just made up by someone, but stems from the book <i><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=_9owAQAAMAAJ&amp;pg=PA15&amp;dq=1857+Upper+Canada+Half+penny&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=f_1nU4PpFNegyATC44GgAQ&amp;ved=0CFgQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&amp;q=1857%20Upper%20Canada%20Half%20penny&amp;f=false" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://books.google.com/books?id=_9owAQAAMAAJ&amp;pg=PA15&amp;dq=1857+Upper+Canada+Half+penny&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=f_1nU4PpFNegyATC44GgAQ&amp;ved=0CFgQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&amp;q=1857%20Upper%20Canada%20Half%20penny&amp;f=false" rel="nofollow">The Copper Tokens of Upper Canada</a></i> by Robert Wallace McLachlan (1916), who stated that while the mintages of the 1857 issues were large, most of them remained in bank vaults for several years until they were sold to a coppersmith and melted down.&nbsp; Now, based on my personal experience in collecting these St. George Provincial pieces, I can tell you that the 1857 does seem to be readily available and supports that likely many of these were actually released into circulation.</p><p><br /></p><p>What I do know from several years of hunting for these tokens is that they are difficult to find in good condition.&nbsp; There was an drastic shortage of copper halfpenny and penny coinage in Canada during this time, and these St. George tokens (along with most other provincial and pre-provincial tokens of Canada) circulated heavily.&nbsp; Most are in VF condition or less.&nbsp; XF and AU pieces can be found with patience, <b>and true MS examples are very scarce</b>.</p><p><br /></p><p>The definitive work on the many varieties of these St. George tokens was written by Dr. Eugene Courteau in 1934 (<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/George-Copper-Tokens-Upper-Canada/dp/B000870FQY/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.amazon.com/George-Copper-Tokens-Upper-Canada/dp/B000870FQY/" rel="nofollow">The St. George Copper Tokens of the Bank of Upper Canada</a></i>); he died just a few months after it was published.&nbsp; Very few people collect the series by Courteau number, and many times it is not even possible to clearly identify the variety on well worn pieces.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have two MS graded tokens -- both 1857 halfpennies.&nbsp; They are both true uncirculated pieces with lots of luster, and the one in MS65 is one of my favorite coins in my entire collection from among 300+ horse related items and several hundred other various coins.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb364/brg5658/Photography-3/1857_UpperCanada_HalfPenny_NGC_MS63BN_composite_zps9664ef57.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><img src="http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb364/brg5658/Photography-3/1857_UpperCanada_HalfPenny_NGC_MS65BN_Courteau186_composite_zpsb3659bab.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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