The Canadian “Blacksmiths”.

So far as the Canadian public in Lower Canada was concerned, the crude copper “halfpennies” made to resemble worn-out English and Irish pieces had been around for decades. So far as the early collectors were concerned, such pieces were usually dismissed as just that: worn-out British coppers and rarely collected except in the most desultory fashion.

That the series became known as “Blacksmiths” was due to a certain amount of mis-information and applying the term much more broadly than deserved. In the 1880s, Robert McLachlan gave a footnote in his catalogue to the piece shown below, insisting that it was struck in Montreal near the home of his mother “when she was a girl” by a blacksmith of dissolute habits, who – he maintained – struck off a few when he wanted to “have a good time”. But we should note: only this piece was identified by McLachlan as being from the hand of his unnamed blacksmith. Only later was the term applied to all such similar Canadian copper pieces - and set in stone when Howland Wood brought out an illustrated catalogue of them in 1910 called “The Canadian Blacksmith Coppers”.

Wood #23; Charlton # BL-40 The token identified by McLachlan as having been struck by a Montreal blacksmith.

McLachlan wasn't quite correct. While some of the above were undoubtedly struck by the tippling blacksmith, most were not. We now know that they were coined by the firm of Daniel & Benjamin True in Troy, N.Y. who presumably also sunk the dies. Some time later, the unknown blacksmith apparently bought these dies – then very worn – from the Trues and indeed struck some copies of the Wood-23. He then “improved” the dies by recutting the reverse figure and knew so little about such work that the result was an outlined “busty” reverse figure that has come to be known as the “Gibson Girl” variety of Wood 23. He also bought the set of dies – then very rusted and worn - from the Trues that they had used to strike a Hard Times token - “Peck's Patent Tin Machines”. In addition, he tried his hand at diecutting, resulting in an amateurish representation of an American eagle as well as a “Riseing Sun Tavern” reverse. All these he mixed and matched every which way (even to striking the odd uniface token). Not many of any one could have been struck since today even the most “common” isn't . All are very rare and pricey.

But why would anyone strike such things in the first place? To make money, of course, which was done wholesale with practically no success by the British government to stamp out the practice. Part of the reason was because the British didn't really look upon copper coin as real money anyway – it was frequently referred to as “tokens for the poor”. But British regal copper was literally driven from the field twice by counterfeiters. The immense quantity of copper halfpennies and farthings struck under George II (1729-60) came to a halt in 1754 when counterfeiters were simply popping the genuine coppers in the pot and “restriking” them in lesser weight. George III (1760-1820) tried again with large issues in 1770-5 but the same thing happened to them. By 1787, the year the first of the good-weight private “Nineteenth Century Tokens” started to appear, it was estimated that 80% of the copper halfpennies in British circulation – and 5/6 th of the farthings – were fakes of various quality. If this was true in Britain, we may be sure that things were even worse in the British North American colonies – and they were. Even official exchange tables list “coppers” rather than “halfpennies”. And even after private issuers in Britain and the Boulton issues contracted by the government (1797-1807) drove copper counterfeits from the British field, even more were struck for export (somewhere).

The coin types copied by the “Blacksmith” counterfeits.

Lt: Ireland, 1/2d, 1736. George II Rt: Great Britain, 1/2d, 1770. George III

The fact was, few of what we call “blacksmiths” were struck by a blacksmith. A good many were coined by firms capable of infinitely better work. We find, for instance, absolutely round planchets; “standard weights” within small tolerances; the absence of rotated dies. Most of what we call the “commoner” issues must have been issued in huge quantities at the time – probably by the ton – in order for so many to have survived all the ordered withdrawals and meltings in the 19 th Century. The Canadian authorities were quite effective in dislodging the “blacksmiths” in 1839 when they removed from legal tender status all British and Irish copper coin struck before 1806; along with the worn-flat genuine coins went the “blacksmiths” that imitated just such pieces.

The most common “blacksmiths” were manufactured to resemble highly worn halfpennies of the above official types: those with a “head left” for George II; those with “bust right”, George III; those with a “Britannia” reverse English halfpennies; those with a “Harp” reverse, Irish halfpennies. McLachlan's blacksmith was imitating a British halfpenny of George III with his junkey wares (even if Britannia was seated backwards).

But there were other types, practically all of them rare today which would speak of a local Canadian production for circulation or (yes) possibly the collectors' market. Some copied the already-junky “Bust & Harps”, Tiffin imitations and so forth. Many of these types showed up only in the 1890s and through to more recent times.

One of the most peculiar is that shown above. This extremely rare piece (it last sold in 1999 for $3520!) has an obverse that is an obvious copy of a Bouquet Sou which, by itself, would place it in the late 1830s during the very last days of the “blacksmiths”. The reverse, we are told, is a copy of a copper coin from Chihuahua, Mexico from “1850”. However, Chihuahua also struck copper ¼-reals during 1833-5 with the same Indian design. Quite possibly this is genuine – although why anyone would strike such a “non-mainstream” piece and expect it to hide in the usual “blacksmith” population is anyone's guess.

Wayne Jacobs is a numismatic expert. Currently secretary and editor of the "Mid-Island Coin Club Numismatic Journal"of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island , British Columbia, he is the award winning author of numerous articles. 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.