Prince Edward Island : Br-916.

 

P.E.I. Halfpenny, 1840 Br-916.   Copper, Coin Rev.   Enlarged 1.7x

 

From The Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal , January, 1886:

 

“ A Correspondent of a St. John , N.B. paper, gives the following notes of the Wheat-sheaf halfpenny: - The plough and wheat-sheaf halfpenny was struck in the year 1840 by James Millner, brother of our highly esteemed and ingenious citizen George W. Millner, tinsmith, etc, a gentleman who in his way is a perfect representative of Proteus. James Millner imported the machinery, dies, etc from the United States at an expense of about $700. A few coins were struck, when the whole concern was pitched into a corner and afterwards sold for old iron. His workshop at that time, as far as I can learn, was situated on Pownal Street , nearly opposite the gaol in Charlottetown . The inscription on one side of the coin is “Prince Edward's Island , 1840”

The actual obverse inscription is: “Prince Edward's Island Halfpenny / 1840” while that on the reverse reads: “Commerce & Trade” around the plough. These rare pieces are always crudely struck on poorly prepared copper planchets. Except for one:

 

In 1995, Montreal dealer Warren Baker offered the Br-916 shown below. It is a much superior strike on a brass planchet. In his estimation, it was quite possibly a trial strike conducted by the American sinkers of the dies.

 

Prince Edward Island , Halfpenny, 1840. Br-916. Relatively well-struck in brass.

Wayne Jacobs is numismatic expert. He is the award winning author of numerous articles. He is the secretary and editor of the "Mid-Island Coin Club Numismatic Journal"of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island , British Columbia. The MICC journal are hosted here: MICC webpages Copyright 2006 Wayne Jacobs. This article may be reprinted freely for non commercial purpose only if the resource box is left intact, linking back to us.