[Game] World Coins Time Machine… Counting Backward by Year! (Plus Prize Coin)

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I like the bear on the first token. Fits with my collection.

 

Is that what it is? At first I didn't notice it and then was disappointed when I saw it had been defaced.

 

I bought this French Revolution 5 Centime at a flea market for $1. It is dated L'5, which mostly corresponds to 1797, issued under the government of the Directory. It was cheap because it appears beat up (and the seller thought there was no date on it).
While it is worn, the smashed face and irregular lettering is because it was re-struck from a 10 centime coin when the money was revalued in 1797, and much of the old design is still shadowed (upside down) on the coin. The word "DECIME" (10 centimes) can still be made out on the reverse above the word CENTIMES.

 

You guys whipped by 1799 too quickly, so here's one of mine



& now back to the thread with 1797

 

I only have 1 1797 that I'm aware of

 

Cartwheel designs exist for the farthing through the twopence but only the penny and twopence went into production.

 

Folks, we need at least 1 day per year. We have posters from the other side of the world ... Siberia, Thailand. Need to give them a chance to post. 1798 flipped in 8 hours ... They probably slept through 1798.

 

Agree. Maybe hold it at 1798 for a bit (even 1799 was a bit short). I'm all for a few timewarps here and there (to post missed ones), but maybe we can keep it to close to 24 hours each date so we don't need too many.

 

Kingdom of Naples 1797 and 1798.

 

Republic of France.
5 centimes L'An 7 (1797/1798).

 

Canton Bern.
1798.

 

1997 Great Britain penny and 2 pence (Cartwheel coinage), Soho Mint.


penny


2 pence

Some early history of the Soho mint. {My comments are in italics}

From: http://sohomint.info/earlyyears.html
There {at Soho}, Boulton established a traditional hand-operated mint, paid for by the East India Company, and which produced eighteen tons of coins between August 1786 and the middle of May 1787. The East India Company awarded Boulton a second order for thirty tons in May 1787. ...

Boulton calculated the costs of his production, noted the price paid by the East India Company, and concluded that minting could be profitable, but not the way he was doing it at that moment. Concentrating all the production at one site, and using steam power – that was the way forward. ...

From: http://sohomint.info/industrial.html
Boulton had his {steam powered} mint up and running by the late summer of 1789, only to find that his {prime} customer, the British Government, had other things on its mind, had in fact left the shop when its proprietor wasn’t looking. Soho would eventually get a contract to coin regal copper {the cartwheel coppers of 1997 were the first}, and then another {the 1799 coppers}, and another still {the 1806 coppers}. But in the meantime, its master must coin as he could. So he did: Boulton joined others in producing copper penny and halfpenny tokens (his products are almost always distinguished by their artistry and full copper content), coinage for India, Bermuda {the 1793 penny}, the Gold Coast, and Sierra Leone {the 1791 Sierra Leon Company coinage} – anything to keep the mint busy, ... He finally got his big break in 1797, but by then, he was thinking beyond coinage, mulling over the idea of a logical extension to his labors. He’d struck coins and tokens of a new type, and he’d sent them across the world. Why not create and ship entire mints, so that the world could make his new coinage for itself?

It was done. Boulton was treating with the Russian government just as his first British coining contract was being signed. When all was said and done, he, his son and their Soho enterprise would have provided mints and the engines to power them to Russia, Denmark, India, Portugal, Brasil, Mexico, and, most satisfying of all, to Tower Hill {Boulton died in 1809, the year prior to the opening to the London Tower Hill Mint in 1810, which was outfitted with Boulton’s steam presses}.

 

1797 India Madras Presidency, United East India Company, 1/48 Rupee, Soho Mint. This coin shares the same wide rim design of the 1997 British coppers, but is much lower in weight than the penny (13g vs. 28g).


The reverse of this coin shows the merchant’s mark of the United East India Company.


Following is the history behind this merchant’s mark, and the “united” in the title.

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant%27s_mark
When the East India Company was chartered by Elizabeth I, Queen of England in 1600 it was still customary for each merchant or Company of Merchant Adventurers to have a distinguishing mark which included the "Sign of Four" and served as a trademark. The East India Company's mark was made up from a '+', a '4' and the initials EIC. ... {the "+" doesn't appear on the mark by the time of this coinage}

The "Sign of Four" was an outgrowth of an ancient symbol adopted by the Romans and by Christianity, Chi Rho (XP){☧}, standing for the first two letters of Christus in Greek letters; this was simplified to a reversed "4" in Medieval times.
{Below:} The Mystical Sign of Four,


To manage the risks of piracy or shipwreck, merchants often consigned a cargo to several vessels or caravans; a mark on a bale established legal ownership and avoided confusion. Early travellers, voyagers and merchants displayed their merchant's marks as well to ward off evil. Adventurous travellers and sailors ascribed the terrors and perils of their life to the wrath of the Devil. To counter these dangers merchants employed all sorts of religious and magical means to place their caravans, ships and merchandise under the protection of God and His Saints.

Why the United in the company title? The original EIC was chartered in 1600 as a joint-stock company. But …

From: http://learn.culturalindia.net/brief-history-british-east-india-company-essay.html
In 1694, the House of Commons voted “that all the subjects of England had an equal right to trade to the East Indies unless prohibited by act of Parliament.” Under pressure from wealthy influential tradesmen not associated with the Company. Following this the English Company Trading to the East Indies was founded with a state-backed indemnity of £2 million.To maintain financial control over the new company, existing stockholders of the old company paid a hefty sum of £315,000. ... The new company was ultimately absorbed by the old East India Company in 1708. A tripartite venture was established between the state, the old and the new trading companies under the banner of United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies {i.e. UEIC, later EIC}.

{The “united” was later dropped from the name and the merchant’s mark. The company title dropped the “United” by the coining of the 1808 10 cash of India Madras Presidency (Admiral Gardner coinage). }

 

I do not collect conders (she repeats over and over again).

 

Something very unusual and seldom seen lately : cartwheel penny and 2 pence :


UK, 2 pence - 1797



UK, penny - 1797

Q