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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cwtokenman, post: 69645, member: 2100&quot;]I like a good challenge, but this one got the best of me. I looked through about 1400 pages of token references without a match to either side. From its appearance, I do think that this is a token rather than a coin, at least if it is U.S. I started in the Colonial era and checked several books up through the 1870&#039;s, when sailing ship depictions became rather sparce. Unfortunately, not all token descriptions were accompanied by a photo, so I can not positively conclude that it is not a U.S. token. I do not have any non-U.S. references to attempt an id to a foreign source. While there are a fair number of U.S. tokens displayed a sailing ship, the ship on your item is rather distinctive. </p><p><br /></p><p>The shape of what appears to be the outer or flying jib sail is well defined, with its trailing edge only a few degrees off of an imaginary vertical line. Most jib sails on the sailing ships are shown closer to somewhere between a 45 deg. angle to nearly a horizontal position rather than your nearly vertical one. Usually the other ships&#039; examples are much less &quot;triangular&quot; shaped than the one on your token. The most distinctive feature of the ship&#039;s sails however, is the shape of the fore course sail (behind and lower than the jib sail), which is shown taller than it is wide. I only saw two other tokens that did likewise, all of the others show that sail, and most of the others as well, as being much wider than it is tall. Those were the two primary features I was using to try to identify the ship. </p><p><br /></p><p>None of the reverse lettering/date seemed to match up to any of the ship token photos I viewed either. The lettering does not seem right for the type of wording typically found on U.S. tokens. In trying to guess what any of the actual words may have been, &quot;DEFENCE&quot; would be about as close a match to the upper row of shapes shown as I could think of. That was a common word on tokens of the early 1800&#039;s but typically found going around the rim, not in the center. Another possibility is that the letters could be part of a company name (ex:BUFFING CO.), followed by the owner&#039;s or a locational name.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sorry I could not be of more help. When I saw the shape of the sails, I knew they were distinctive features and I was fairly confident that I would be able to tell you what it was. If someone could check some non-U.S. refs, it may yet be found.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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