I love how there is such a variety of british halfpennies in the 1790s. I am looking to buy 3 or 4 in ms63 (ncg) that are around $150 each. I have no idea what these are worth and if that is an insane amount or a good deal. Does anyone know of a (preferably free) online means of checking the prices of these pieces or other foreign coins? I can't seem to find anything. I'd appreciate any input! Thanks
the government mint didnt make half pennies in that period so all examples you see where minted by cities, such as the leeds half penny, edinburgh half pennie ect ect. i have never seen one in any ms grade but price varies hugly.
Agreed, sounds like conder tokens. Like any collectible, buying blindly usually ends up making you overpay. You wouldn't buy a house without an appraisal would you? Conders are tough, since there are so many varieties. You could try posting pics here and maybe someone can help you with values. Chris
Yes, they are citie pennies. Here are the ones Im looking at: Chelmsford, 1794 ms63 Lancashire, 1794 ms63 Essex Warley, 1794 ms63 Emsworth, 1794 ms63 "county" halfpenny 1794 ms63
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chelmsford-...005?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43a95de5c5 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Essex-Warle...588?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item45fcc3f6ec http://www.ebay.com/itm/1794-PENNY-...706?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43a973dd9a here are some ebay links, i know ebay isnt always the best judge of price but its the best advice i can offer as ive never seen graded examples of them. i absolutly love conder tokens from that period.
Do you have the DH numbers? Richard Dalton and Samuel Hamer's catalog is the main reference for these. They organized pieces by county and assigned catalog numbers. So you'll need both the county name and DH # to identify each token....for example, Buckinghamshire DH 13, Essex DH 6a, etc...
These are the numbers I am looking at: [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Chelmsfor D&H-6 Lancashire D&H-58 County D&H-12 Essex Warley D&H-36 Emsworth D&H-15 [/FONT] I can't find any info on Dalton and Samuel Hamers...is it something I can see online or no?
Dalton and Hamer's work is entitled, "The Provincial Token-Coinage of the 18th Century" Bill McKivor's site is a good place to start for some history. http://www.thecoppercorner.com/intro/conders_intro.html Also there are a bunch of guys on these boards that are dedicated collectors of this series so there's plenty of free info to be had here. I'll take a look at my data to see if I have any prices listed for those and get back to you in a few.
They look like common tokens overall and in the lower unc grades shouldn't be too tough to find. Essex DH 6 - don't have data for it but the Token Book by Paul and Bente Wither's says 65 GBP for Unc, so about $100. Essex DH 36 - listed as common - I have a record of about $40 for Unc (that was a few years ago but it wouldn't be terribly different from the current value) Lancashire DH 58 - Have quite a bit of sale data for that going back several years up to 2010. mostly Unc and ranging from $40 - $150, depending on the dealer. Majority are lower than $100 though. Emsworth is Hampshire DH 15 - About $50
Thank you very much for that info! The ones Im looking at are ngc ms63's...but according to that info seem fairly overpriced. They are all at around $130-$120
Yes, you'd likely do much better contacting Bill McKivor. He's one of the bigger Conder dealers in the US and publishes a quarterly fixed price list. He'll be back from his trip to England in a couple days and will publish a new list shortly afterward. Jerry Bobbe and Gary Groll are two other very well known dealers in the biz. At any rate, I know some guys will actually buy stuff from Bill, slab-ify it and then post it on the 'bay. Also, most conder tokens trade raw. Some get slabbed in the US though to increase their marketability. But MS-63 is not surprising for a conder token. Genuine trade tokens were initially created to compensate for a lack of small change. They became collectible in the 1790s. So a good number survived in great condition. Many were also made specifically for collectors - and thus, didn't ever circulate. So, for many varieties, MS-60 thru MS-63 is par for the course.
Paul Withers, one of the authors you mentioned, runs Galata.co.uk, a good dealer in books and coins in England.
The Provincila Token Coinage of the 18th Century is online for free viewing Someone has posted Dalton & Hamer's entire work online. It can be viewed here: http://provincialtokencoinage.weebly.com
