"Weird Wellington & The Penguin Lady": Bizarre folk art carving on ca. 1811-1813 Canadian token

"Weird Wellington & The Penguin Lady": Bizarre folk art carving on ca. 1811-1813 Canadian token


Larger picture
Larger reverse image (inverted to show the strange critter right-side up)

Host coin: Undated (ca. 1811-1813) pre-confederation Canadian halfpenny token; "Field Marshall Wellington" (Breton-971?) type, large leaves variety.
Obverse: bust of Field Marshal Wellington with front outline of profile recarved.
Reverse: seated Brittania altered into bizarre bird-headed woman with small animal inverted on her lap.

Ex-"savoyspecial", Collectors Universe, 3/19/2015.

This was a dirt-cheap impulse buy ($6) that was so bizarre I just couldn't pass it up. Courtesy of Greg Capps, aka "savoyspecial" on Collectors Universe, who made me an enthusiastic convert to the whole "graffiti coin" thing.

Boy, "Penguin Lady" is spooky, isn't she? How'd you like to run up on her in a dark alley? Brr... there's some nightmare fuel! Look at that sharp beak... those muscular arms. And that poor creature in her lap, which she appears to be... spanking? Petting? Eviscerating? And what the heck is that critter, anyway? I think I'll call it "The ArmadilloFox".

This was previously part of my Engraved/Counterstamped/Oddball Type Set. I sold it in 2016 (at a tidy profit, though still quite inexpensively).

~RWS