Featured Post Your Soho Mint Coins, Medals and Tokens

1797 Bronzed pattern halfpenny P1153. All(?) the coins I have seen of this variety have a 'tide mark' on the rim which is presumably a consequence of the bronzing process. Ignore the small 'flaw' in front of Britannia's forehead which is a small dig in the scanner bed (and an apparent feature on many of my scanned coins).

 

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Wow, there are some killer pieces in this thread! @robp I am very excited to see what you have to share. Here are a few examples in my collection that have retained their shells. I have a few more, but the slabs need to be buffed before I can even think about trying to photograph them.

 

I need to reimage a lot of my coins. My photographic skills are wanting, and auto-focus frequently doesn't!

 

An early use of the wide raised rim with incuse lettering developed at Soho. A Daniel Eccleston Lancashire halfpenny from 1794. D&H 58.

 

You may be surprised to know that the first crown (as in silver, crown sized coin) produced at the Soho Mint is this one. I believe these were actually minted in 1793.

 

@jgenn very cool piece! If I remember correctly, the date “1791” refers to when the company was founded. According to Doty (1998), there were two orders for these coins. The first order simply used a “1” to mark the denomination, and they were likely struck in December of 1792. Your coin is an example of the second order (6,560 pieces), which were struck in May of 1793 and used “100” to denote the denomination.

 

It took some serious elbow grease to buff out the large scuffs on this slab. I did my best, but there are still noticeable scuffs.

 

A late Soho DH11 halfpenny Peck 964 struck in silver plated copper. ex Brand and Norweb, but not one of Mrs N's finest. Better specimens are available, but it was cheap.

 

Not strictly Soho as it's a restrike, but the obverse derived by modifying the original broken jewels Soho die. An 1807 silver proof halfpenny. A couple of old scratches on the reverse, but possibly unique as I haven't found any evidence of a second example to date - so it will do.

 

And another restrike, this time an R59 in silver - P1163.

 

1797 Penny with 10 leaves to the wreath and incuse dots on the rocks to right. Peck 1132 refers. Ex NGC 65 ref 1881093-001 for anyone who keeps tabs on slabs.

 

The other obverse and reverse varieties used on the currency 1797 pennies. 11 leaves to the wreath, the extra one behind the head above the tie and the rocks having 3 raised dots. Peck 1133A refers. The raised dot reverse is genuinely rare with most 11 leaf coins having an incuse dot reverse (Peck 1133).

 

A Peck 1231 bronzed copper obverse uniface halfpenny which is considered to be the earliest of the 1799 series. Excessively rare, I know of no others in any of the three metals (gilt, bronzed & copper) in private hands. A no-brainer purchase.

 

1798 Isle of Man penny

 

This is a St Helena halfpenny token minted at Soho. At the time St Helena was controlled by the East India Company.

The story (according to The Coinage of British West Africa & St Helena 1684-1958) is that after his defeat at Waterloo in 1815, Napoleon was exiled on St Helena. The arrival of his entourage and the guarding force of British troops (which suddenly doubled the island's population) gave a massive boost to the island's economy.

In response, in 1821 two sets of copper tokens were ordered for use on the island. The first unofficial issue came from a local firm of merchants, while the second was minted by Matthew Boulton at Soho for the East India Company (702,704 halfpennies, total cost £1,000).

Before either were circulated, Napoleon died and everyone left. The surplus of unissued coins was returned in 1830 and melted down, but halfpennies were already in circulation.



1821, halfpenny token, St Helena, 29mm, Soho Mint, AUSP: REGIS & SENAT ANGLIÆ (KM A4).

 

I have that in my British empire collection

 

Mine is not near as nice. But, here it is for effect.

 

Late Soho, 1805 bronzed pattern halfpenny P1303, readily identifiable with the ship nearly worn away.

 

A trial pattern sixpence by either J or F Eginton for Samuel Garbett struck in white metal. See the Spink Numismatic Circular for June 2005 p.169-172 for Dyke's article outlining the designer attribution. This coin ex Watt family collection, Morton & Eden 2002 and Alfred Bole lot 721, DNW 21.6.2012.

 

Lovely works of art in this thread.