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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;TheRed, post: 2726949, member: 87080&quot;]Happy Birthday [USER=78244]@TypeCoin971793[/USER] </p><p>The is a fascinating story and great coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>While certainly not ancient, I offer a copper Penny Conder Token which was privately minted in by the Payrs Mine Company of Anglesey Wales in 1787.&nbsp; Also, I apologize if my write-up is a bit long.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]619131[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Obv: Hooded Druid bust left within Oaken Wreath</p><p>Rev: &quot;WE PROMISE TO PAY THE BEARER ONE PENNY&quot;, Cypher of PMC (Parys Mine Company) </p><p>Edge Inscription: &quot;ON DEMAND IN LONDON LIVERPOOL OR ANGLESET .X.&quot; </p><p><br /></p><p>By the 1780s the state of coinage in British coinage was atrocious.&nbsp; From the late 17th century until the late 18th century of Royal Mint produced almost no copper coins, in fact many years saw none minted. Instead, the Royal mint focused on minting mostly gold coins with some silver too.&nbsp; Yet the mint officially overvalued gold in relation to silver, and Gresham&#039;s law drove silver out of the United Kingdom.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The state of English coinage, especially the scarcity of small denomination coinage, was acutely felt due to the Industrial Revolution and the need to pay worker&#039;s wages.&nbsp; Copper coinage was the natural method, but there was almost none to be had.&nbsp; Some factories paid a group of men in gold, and let them divvy it amongst themselves.&nbsp; Other factories would hold off paying individual wages until they became large enough to be paid in gold.&nbsp; Either way, workmen were left with gold coins that were difficult to spend on their daily purchases.&nbsp; The need for copper coinage was so great that merchants, workers, and the public at large gladly accepted counterfeits.&nbsp; In many cases the authorities even turned a blind eye to the activities of the counterfeiters, as it was felt that they were preforming a public service.&nbsp; By the late 1700s it was estimated that two-thirds of all coins in circulation were counterfeit.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thomas Williams, the acting director of the Payrs Mine Company, sough to rectify the situation.&nbsp; He first approached the Royal Mint about striking copper coinage using Payrs copper, but was refused.&nbsp; If the Royal Mint would note strike copper, Williams decided he would, and oversaw the minting of the first token coinage in 1787.&nbsp; As the inscription on the token says, they represented a promise to pay the holder of the token one penny, and were not in fact legal tender.&nbsp; To the public at large this distinction didn&#039;t matter.&nbsp; Finally they had copper coinage with which to conduct their daily business, and enthusiastically embraced the coinage.&nbsp; Quickly other industrialist, merchants, and craftsmen issued tokens of their own, and by the early 1790s millions had been mint in thousands of designs. </p><p><br /></p><p>Eventually the Government was shaken from its lethargy by a financial crisis, and in 1797 the famous Cartwheel Tuppence of George III, as well as a penny, were produced.&nbsp; With large quantities of government issued coinage the need for privately issued token coinage ended.&nbsp; Eventually in the early 1800s Parliament passed an act that forbid the production of private token coinage.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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