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Vol. 10, No.7 July, 2011
"Coins of the Romano-British Mints" " How a Brock Copper Cancelled a Debt of $500" (rpt) Above: Cheque drawn on the Dawson City branch of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, 1898, payable in 62 ½ ounces of gold dust.
The Mid-Island Coin Club, Dues: $12 per year Mailing Address: Mid-Island Coin Club, c/o West Coast Stamp & Coin, Executive Officers: President: Chris Linfitt
The meeting of June 9 was attended by 28 members and guests. Speaker for the evening was Victor Uniat who gave a presentation on Canadian currency plate numbers. The new projector purchased as per the club's pleasure last meeting was on display. M/S/C that individual nametags of a permanent nature be acquired at a cost of $7.20 each. Also M/S/C that a maximum of $200 be earmarked for supplies for the Mid-Island Barbecue in August. Even though it will be held just after the August meeting, we should know the following details concerning the Barbecue: Our club is booked for the Community Park Picnic Shelter, Community Park , Parksville, B.C. on August 14 between the hours of 1:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Provide your own chairs. Hot dogs, hamburgs and pop will be supplied courtesy the club. Open to all members, other collectors, their guests etc. For those interested in doing so, bring along show-and-tell, traders and sellers. Yet another reminder: slots still need to be filled for the VIEX participation Aug. 19 - 21. See Joan. At the July meeting, we will be given a talk by insurance agent Bill Brendon who will discuss coverage and the options you have in insuring your collection. Questions welcome.
Coins of the Romano-British Mints.
British collectors have a very longlived series to access, going all the way back to the era of the pre-Roman invasion tribes, at least the First Century B.C., when most coins were crude copies of Greek pieces. Despite Julius Caesar's brief landing on Britain 's shores, the Roman occupation of Britain dates from A..D. 43 when Emperor Claudius (A.D. 41-54) personally took part in the successful invasion. For his efforts, coins were struck in commemoration of this event and, although struck in Rome , are included by British numismatists as part of the "Roman Coins Relating to Britain " series.
Over the years, there were a number of Roman coins commemorating events and victories in Britain but when we come to consider only those Roman coins actually minted in the island, things are somewhat more murky. She did not have to import metals for coinage but rather had considerable deposits, most of which were exported. According to Peter Salway ("Illustrated History of Roman Britain", 1993), the Roman gold mines in Dolaucothi, Wales, were important enough to cause the use of waterwheels, necessary to keep the mines drained. Silver production was much larger ( Derby , Shropshire and Yorkshire deposits) as well a by-product from the lead deposits of Mendips. Britain was self-sufficient in iron, the large deposits of the Weald already being exploited and smelted with charcoal - or coal (one of the earlier instances of this use). Then there were the tin and copper deposits of Cornwall and Wales . British mineowners of the precious metals paid a hefty tax : 50% to Rome for use in her coinage. Yet with these advantages, Britain typically imported her coinage from Rome or the satellite mints of Gaul . The period of the operation of the London Mint - of which there is documentary proof - is quite short: from the reign of Carausius (AD 287-293) to the immediate offspring of Constantine the Great, some time around AD 326. The smaller Colchester Mint operated for an even shorter time. Supposedly, the London Mint operated for a brief, last time during the reign of Magnus Maximus (AD 383-388), but, if so, it must have been a "copy mint" since the early specialist, John Akerman, could write: "All his coins bear the exergual letters of the continental mints only". The "exergual letters" that constitute the mintmarks on these Romano-British coins are of but two mints: London (called "Londinium") which appear as L, ML, MLL, MLN, MSL, PLN or PLON - various forms of "London Mint" or "Money of London") and Colchester (called "Camulodunum") which used C or CL.
But London may already have been a "copy mint" before its documented existence. To many British numismatists, the above coin provides circumstantial evidence that this was so. Although the quality of design and engraving is not inferior to the general Roman coins, it is always of crude fabric. Considering that is commemorative of a British event and that it is fairly common in contemporary British hoards, it could well be a Made-in-Britain issue even though it is innocent of any mintmark save the usual SC in exergue (which merely indicates "by authority of the Senate").
Above: Carausius, AE "aurelianus", London Mint. Lt: PAX type; Rt: Providentia type.
The first British coins carrying a mintmark (ML for London ) appeared during the brief reign of the rebel, M. Aurelius Mausaeus Carausius (AD 287-293) who rose against the western emperor Maximianus and held Britain as well as (for a time) Boulogne on the continent. During his reign, he struck gold aurei coins ( London , Rouen and unattributed), silver denarii ( London , Colchester , Rouen and unattributed) as well as copper aurelianii from all mints. The two shown above are among the most common. The latter are often called "antoninianii" in older works, but the transformation took place during the currency reforms of Aurelian in AD 273; otherwise, they are indistinguishable. As might be expected, all his gold coins are extremely rare while the silver denarii are only slightly less so. The copper pieces are reasonably common. There is a very strange copper aurelianus from the period 292/3, struck at the London Mint in the name of Diocletian, the legitimate overall emperor, against whom Carausius was in rebellion. Attributed in Carausius' reign, the portrait seems to more resemble his successor, Allectus. In any case, in exergue, reads MLXXI; this is not Roman numerals for 1521 but rather " M oneta L ondiniumensis (Officina) 21": produced in Shop 21 of the London Mint. The mint was that large.
While Carausius could stand firm against Maximianus, the western emperor, he didn't do so well against the emperor's "caesar", Constantius, who successfully conquered Boulogne , Carausius' main stronghold on the continent in 293. Soon after this, Carausius was murdered by Allectus, his chief minister, who succeeded to the throne. Allectus lacked his predecessor's ability and Constantius won quite handily when he invaded Britain in 296.
Because of his very short reign, all coins of Allectus are scarce. A gold aureus and billon denarius were struck in his name at the London Mint but both are extremely rare. Those aside, both the copper aurelianus and its half, the quinarius, were struck at both the London and Colchester Mints. With the fall of Allectus, the London Mint continued to operate under the restored legitimate augustii and caesars, although Colchester seems to have been closed. Oddly, the man most responsible for the restoration, Constantius, appears to have used its facilities for his own use very little. There is only one bronze quinarius that is typically attributed to the London Mint, even though it carries no mintmark.
Although Constantius was reticent of using the London Mint for his own use, others were not after Britain 's recapture in 296. Both the western emperor, Diocletian (AD 284 - 305) and Galerius, as eastern caesar (AD 293-305) coined copper follis at the London Mint. In AD 305, both emperors - Diocletian in the west and Maximianus in the east - abdicated in favour of the former caesars: Constantius in the west and Galerius in the east. However, Constantius did not rule long, dying at York on 25 July 306 after repelling a Pict invasion. Upon his death, his troops proclaimed his son, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, as the new emperor to fill his father's position. This set off tremendous turmoil and civil war which only reached an uneasy peace in AD 313 with the joint-rule of Constantine (caesar 306-7; "filius augustorum" 308-9; augustus 309-337) and Licinius (308-324). Thereafter the imperial offices were generally in the hands of Constantine's sons and relatives
Constantine , British-born and with most of his early regnal years being in Britain or Gaul , made frequent use of the London Mint, although apparently only of the copper issues. So far as we can tell, the London Mint was closed in about AD 326 but before it did so, it produced issues for Constantine 's successors while they were still caesar as well as some for both his mother and wife. It was during Constantine 's reign that a "currency reform" was carried out; generally speaking, there was a lightening of coin throughout and the old follis became what we call an "AE3" as collectors. London coins are usually only somewhat less common than the bronze issues of other mints.
Lt. & Ctr: AE3 of Constantine I. Rt.: AE3 Constantius II as caesar (AD 324-5)
Lt. & Ctr.: AE3 of Licinius I (ca AD 314). Rt.: AE3 of Crispus as caesar (AD 323-4)
Left: Obv. & Rev. AE3 Helena, mother of Constantine (struck London , 324/5) Right: Obv. & Rev. AE3 of Fausta, wife of Constantine (struck at London , 325/5)
These are among the last issues of the London Mint, which would thereafter disappear from the scene for several centuries. There are also a great many more issues but these are among the most common.
How a "Brock Copper" Cancelled a Debt of $500.by T.S. Wood, Picton, Ont. (from "The Canadian Antiquarian & Numismatic Journal", April, 1878)
In the year 1815 there lived in Kingston a man named Ackroyd. He was a wholesale merchant and had during the previous two years sold goods to a young country merchant named Sam Harlow and had received satisfactory payment for the same. About three weeks before the proclamation of peace between England and the United States , Harlow came to Kingston and purchased goods, paying part down, and leaving a balance due to Ackroyd of $500. As soon as peace took place the value of merchandise fell fifty per cent. Harlow went to Kingston and told Ackroyd that the goods he had bought of him would not bring half the money he promised to pay for them, and requested him to take them back in part payment at a discount of forty per cent as he, Harlow, was not able to pay for them. They quarreled and Ackroyd threatened to put him in gaol. Harlow returned home and in twenty-four hours he sold all his goods to his friends, and his store was empty. Ackroyd capiased Harlow , obtained a judgement against him for debt and costs, and put him in gaol, saying he would get his way or keep him there ten years. In order, however, to fulfil his threat according to the provisions of the law at that time, he had to pay Harlow one dollar per week, payable every Monday morning before ten o'clock . At the time that Harlow was put in gaol, there was a great scarcity of small change as circulating medium in money affairs, and much inconvenience was felt among all classes of business men. As soon as the Yankees found out the scarcity they smuggled into Upper Canada large quantities of "Brock Coppers". They were eagerly accepted, without regard to real value, and in a short time the country was glutted with spurious coin. A few weeks after Harlow 's imprisonment, a meeting of business men of Kingston was called for the purpose of putting a stop to the circulation of a coin composed of spurious metal, known as "Brock Coppers", and the following advertisement appeared in the Kingston papers: "WE, THE undersigned, Merchants, Hotel-Keepers. Grocers, Mechanics and business men of the Town of Kingston, do hereby make the following statement that: 'Whereas the circulation of the Brock Coppers has become a nuisance, and a loss to the holders thereof, we do hereby agree that we will not offer them in payment for any articles that we purchase, nor receive them in payment for any article that we sell. They are composed of spurious metal, and are of NO VALUE." Signed by sixty-four of the business men of Kingston , with Ackroyd's name at the head of the list.
The two main types of "Brock Coppers". Left: Br-723 / Ch-UC5; Right: Br-724 / Ch-UC6 The "Urn type" was by far the most common, there being numerous die varieties of the obverse. There was a scarce mule of "Ship" Obverse / "1816" reverse ; circa 1980 a concoction of "Urn" obverse with "Inscription" reverse mule was manufactured by Pobjoy Mint as a souvenir.
Five days after the appearance of the above notice, Mr. Ackroyd had occasion to go to Montreal, and expecting to be absent from Kingston a fortnight, he left money with his lawyer, Mr. Allan McLean, to pay Harlow his weekly allowance. The next Monday, Mr. McLean went to the gaol and met the gaoler's wife, Mrs. Dulmage, at the door. He handed her some money saying "Here is Harlow 's dollar. I wish you to give it to him immediately. It is now just 9 o'clock . You know he must have it before 10." She took the money and went into the debtor's room, called Harlow , and said "Here is the dollar that Ackroyd sent you" and was about to put it into his hand at once, when Harlow said "Count it to me. I am afraid that he has not sent me enough." She said "Here are three pieces of silver, 1s3d each, making 3s9d and here is a Halifax shilling, making 4s9d, and six coppers, making one dollar." "Count the coppers", said Harlow, carefully eying them, and noticing one "Brock Copper" among them, but saying nothing about it, and adding, "I don't take black money. If I have got to play the gentleman on a dollar a week I must have all white money." She said "I have no time to be fooling with you. I'll put the money on the cupboard; and whenever you want it, it is ready for you." Harlow waited till noon and then sent for his lawyer. The lawyer came and asked Mrs. Dulmage if she had the money she had offered to Harlow . She said "Here is 4s9d in silver and three pence in coppers". The lawyer asked her if she was willing to make oath that this was the very money she had offered Harlow ; she replied in the affirmative.. He said, "Please count the coppers again, and name them." "Well, here are six coppers". "Please tell of what kind". "Well, there are five old coppers, and one new "Brock Copper". A notary was sent for, to whom Mrs. Dulmage made oath to the facts. The lawyer gathered all the papers and documents appertaining to Harlow 's imprisonment, and enclosing them with the newspaper containing the aforesaid advertisement, Mrs. Dulmage's affidavit and the money, in one package, sent it by mail to the Court at York, and ten days after the Sheriff received an order saying that as Ackroyd had failed to pay the money required by law, he must set Harlow at liberty as the debt was cancelled. Harlow accordingly came out with flying colours, and said he did not see the reason the Kingston people had for making such a fuss about "Brock Copper". For his part, he thought they were better than gold, and he should save a handful to remember Ackroyd by. (Note: The silver pieces valued at 1s3d each were almost certainly Spanish- American 2-real coins while the "Halifax Shilling" at 1s was the Spanish 2-real, called a "pistareen" in North America )
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The 1911 Dei Gratia Cent.
As most Canadian collectors are aware, all of our coinage for the year 1911 were "Godless", lacking the Latin words DEI GRATIA ("By the Grace of God") in their obverse legends. We're equally aware that this oversight was corrected as of New Year's, 1912, and continued onward as such (with the exception of the 1935 Commemorative silver dollar). Over the years, reports popped up like Sasquatch sightings of this collector or that possessing a 1911 large cent on which the legends were not "Godless" but rather as those of 1912. Most often they had been reported as having been found in a dealer's "junk box" or some such. In general, the collecting fraternity discounted such reports as simple smoke blowing or the conversion by erasure of a later cent's date, the prime candidate being the removal of all but the upright of a 4 of a 1914 cent. Perhaps this could fool the unwary but close examination of the cent in question and its 1911 and 1914 counterparts will reveal subtle but detectible differences as: ( 1911) spaces between the 9-1 and 1-1 are equal, the final 1 pointing directly to the second spur on the leaf in the border beneath, while the (1914) has a wider space between the last two 1s, the final of which points to the right of the same leaf spur below. Conventional belief was that no such cent mule existed. In Fred Bowman's compilation of patterns (1957), quite complete to that date, no such cent appears. Nor did we become aware of it until 1986.
Pattern One Cent, 1911. Charlton DC-5, Bowman -. Approx 2x
In the July/August 1987 number of the CNJ , Canadian collectors were delighted to learn that the Royal Mint, London , had donated a 1911 Dei Gratia pattern to the Bank of Canada National Currency Collection in the previous year. The mule did exist. Although after all these years it seems fairly certain that no such mule entered regular circulation, there was always the possibility that it could have. With two different yet similar obverses, a left-over Godless obverse might have accidentally been used in 1912; conversely, a left-over 1911 reverse might have accidentally been paired with the new obverse in 1912. Seemingly, neither happened. Some might question as to why a Dei Gratia obverse might even be paired with a 1911 reverse at all, even as a pattern. The answer is that the Dei Gratia obverses were produced late in that year, the earlier Godless variety being a mistake. After all, we should note that the obverse of the 1911 pattern silver dollar is also of the Dei Gratia type. Although Edward VII died very early in 1910, and there should have been more than adequate time to produce the new obverses for George V as of January, 1911, such was not the case. We still have no idea why the new master tools were not received by Canada even as summer, 1911 was approaching. But they weren't. Canada got no results until they threatened to strike 1910-C sovereigns with the previous year's dies, no matter the mint rules about coining only with the current date. All the rest of Canada 's coinage was at a minting standstill when Finance Minister Fielding was asked to approve the new obverses. Embroiled in an upcoming election (which the Laurier Liberals lost), he seems to have paid little attention to the proposed Latin legend, merely scribbling his OK and probably muttering "Get on with it." When the master tools arrived, the Canadian government (and Fielding especially) was chagrined to note the lack of DEI GRATIA or its contraction in the legend. Embarrassingly, the government was forced to pass legislation authorizing the use of this defective legend since coinage was badly needed and there was no time to have corrections made that year. More legislation had to be passed authorizing the use of the corrected legend as of the beginning of 1912. The Borden Conservatives, of course, made great hay with the situation and, coupled with Laurier's proposed treaty of free trade with the U.S. (on terms much more favourable that we negotiated in the 1980s), won the election. But immediately upon receipt of the "Godless" obverse master tools, Fielding ordered corrected ones which were certainly received well before the end of the year since the Ottawa Mint was able to begin striking 1912 coins with the correct obverse legends almost on New Year's Day. Of course, out of all this muddle came one of the more interesting chapters of Canadian numismatics. The Liberal government of the day would probably have scarcely termed it "interesting". ************************************************************************
The 1958 Death Dollar.
The theme expressed on the reverse of the 1958 Canadian silver dollar was in dual commemoration of the centenaries of the Cariboo Gold Rush and the establishment of the Crown Colony of British Columbia as a consequence. The 1858 discovery of gold in what is now B.C.'s interior sparked a mad rush consisting very largely of Americans. At the time the area was sort of a No-man's Land, although part of the holdings of the Hudson 's Bay Company. To forestall any American land grab, Governor James Douglas of the Crown Colony of Vancouver Island exceeded his authority by claiming sovereignty over the Cariboo in the name of the Crown and allowing the prospectors into the gold fields only after the purchase of a mining license. His actions were later confirmed by Britain and the Crown Colony of British Columbia formally proclaimed later that year. In 1866 the two Colonies were merged into " British Columbia ". In 1958, the Royal Canadian Mint issued a silver dollar commemorating these two events. Perhaps the Mint was hungry for a new design; certainly recent mintages had been modest for the silver dollar, all of which had used the same-old-same-old Voyageur design by Emanuel Hahn. In a design contest held in 1957, that of Stephen Trenka, a Hungarian-born engraver who had come to Canada in 1929, was chosen from some 150 entries. It consisted of the top part of a totem pole, with mountains in the background. On one of the minor panels on the pole at right bottom appears the S.T., his initials. Although an engraver, Trenka's submission was in the form of a large plaster model. The actual engraving was done by the Mint Engraver, Thomas Shingles, with the aid of the Mint's reducing machine. As were all Canadian silver dollars at the time, this one measured 36 mm, weighed 23.33 grams, had a fineness of .800 silver and a reeded edge. The coin was made current by a Proclamation of 21 February 1958 , even though its actual minting was already well under way.
Almost at once a certain amount of controversy arose concerning the dollar's reverse design. For some, the totem reverse was inappropriate since it would appear to have nothing to do with a Cariboo Gold Rush or the establishment of the Crown Colony of British Columbia. While it was true that for most Canadians totem poles were associated with the West Coast, it still seemed something of a stretch. But the main hullabaloo was reserved for the pole itself. Ethnologists pointed out that to those of the Tsimshian nation, the raven (and it is a stylized raven at the top of the pole) was used on mortuary poles as a symbol of death. This set off a host of urban legends about Trenka having made an error, native peoples refusing to accept these "Death Dollars" and so forth. Simply legends, they nevertheless focused a lot of attention on this dollar and made it more popular than it would have been otherwise. Trenka did not make a mistake. The totem pole depicted (or at least its top half) was not Tsimshian but rather Haida and was a faithful reproduction from a photo in the Royal British Columbia Museum taken in 1884. In the Haida culture, Raven, "The Trickster", is not a symbol of death but rather revered as the "Bringer of Light to the World". According to one of many Haida versions of the legend, Raven stole the sun through subterfuge from a greedy chief who had kept it locked in a box, keeping the world in darkness. In a complicated series of events, Raven had himself born to the chief's daughter as a grandson, then used his wily ways to coax and wheedle his doting grandfather to let him play with the ball of light in the box. The chief finally giving in, Raven seized the sun, turned back into his bird form and fled with it, flinging it into the sky where it has shone every day since.
Left: Original photo of the Haida "Raven" totem pole (1884). Right: 1958 Commemorative.
The commemorative dollar was in the limelight to the extent that its mintage surpassed by nearly triple that of any previous Canadian silver dollar. A total of 3,039,630 of them were struck, 33,237 of which were Proof-like. Not until the Great Coin Boom of 1964 was this mintage exceeded. And far from being unpopular on the West Coast, 1,315,000 of them were released to circulation from the Vancouver agency of the Bank of Canada. So many of these coins were struck that they remain common today. Currently, the 1958 "Death Dollar" has to be in at least MS-60 to receive even a slight premium over bullion value. But no doubt the Mint wished that it could have had equal success with all its commemorative dollars.
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July 2011"Coins of the Romano-British Mints" " How a Brock Copper Cancelled a Debt of $500" (rpt)
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