COLONIAL CANADIAN COIN

[tcornel]

This is a 1852 colonial one penny coin from Nova Scotia found in NE Ohio at the site of a long gone log cabin.

Canada was formed in 1876 and Nova Scotia was an English Colony in 1852.


Evidently the British made these extra big as they believed their coins to be "better: than other colonies' coins. The back side has a thistle on it above the date.

This penny is BIG! It is pictured next to a US large cent. This thing is almost the size of a silver dollar. I can't imagine carrying a bunch of these around.

This was a chance to learn a little about our neighbor's to the North.

 

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[A2coins]

Awesome find and information on your find
Amazing you found it in Ohio not much surprises me In this hobby .That is big I'm glad you were able to save it and share it with us. Congrats great piece of History
...Tommy

 

[ironhorse]

based on the British standard, our pre confederation tokens came in many sizes but those penny tokens were the cause of many pocket holes over the years I'm sure
since 1867 ( the formation of Canada) these have disappeared but show up in a hole in the ground every once and a while

 

[pepperj]

I'm having a head moment over the token that you have dug. 1832 was the coinage date and a lot of those were struck in 1835 in Montreal.
Maybe pick the 5/3 part of the date as it could try well be just the corrosion that shows it as a 5.
The main reason was Canada was short on coinage.
Either way it really shows how far the coinage travels back in the day.
Congrats on the recovery.

 

[tcornel]

Definitely a 5. Well the corrosion showed it as a 5 but it is a 3. 1832

 

[pepperj]

Nova Scotia

In 1813, certain*Halifaxbusinessmen began importing halfpennies into*Nova Scotiaand, by 1816, a great variety was in circulation. The government ordered their withdrawal in 1817. Beginning in 1823, and again in 1824, 1832, 1840 and 1843, the government issued a copper coinage, without authority from England. In 1856, Nova Scotia issued one of the most beautiful of the Canadian colonial coinages, bearing an image of a*mayflower, with the permission of the British government

I have yet to find a 1852 in my books.

 

[Digger RJ]

Nice!!!!! Congrats!!!!!

 

[Red-Coat]

… Evidently the British made these extra big as they believed their coins to be "better: than other colonies' coins...
This penny is BIG! It is pictured next to a US large cent. This thing is almost the size of a silver dollar. I can't imagine carrying a bunch of these around.

Don’t know where you got that from! Under British law, it was a requirement that coins had to contain metal to a value that matched the face value of the coin itself, and that also applied to base metal coins. So a penny was made from a pennyworth of copper, with consequent effect on its dimensions and weight. The Nova Scotia pennies were constrained by the same standard and so needed to be 34mm in diameter with a weight of 17g.

That’s why our small denomination coins were so large and this onerous requirement was not relaxed until 1859 under pressure from Thomas Graham (Master of the Mint). He convinced William Gladstone (Chancellor of the Exchequer) of the benefit in introducing a whole new coinage which would be “much more convenient and agreeable in use”. Then, from 1860, we introduced coins in bronze rather than copper with reduced weight and dimensions. Largely to appease the general public, maintain prestige, and offset any perception that the coinage was being ‘devalued’, we retained large diameters for our coins but with reduced thickness and weight. That large diameter was retained all the way through to the introduction of decimal currency in 1970 when the old penny with a diameter of 31mm was replaced by the new penny with a diameter of 20mm.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Very cool find, congrats!

 

[tcornel]

My info came from a Canadian friend that I hunt with during the winter in Myrtle Beach. We obviously didn't have the knowledge of the members here. Thank you to all for the info.

 

[tcornel]

You are correct that it is an 1832 date. The corrosion showed it as a 5 but once I scraped some more off it was a 3. I was hesitant to do it as I have made slugs out of many copper coins trying to clean them.

I'm having a head moment over the token that you have dug. 1832 was the coinage date and a lot of those were struck in 1835 in Montreal.
Maybe pick the 5/3 part of the date as it could try well be just the corrosion that shows it as a 5.
The main reason was Canada was short on coinage.
Either way it really shows how far the coinage travels back in the day.
Congrats on the recovery.

 

[pepperj]

You are correct that it is an 1832 date. The corrosion showed it as a 5 but once I scraped some more off it was a 3. I was hesitant to do it as I have made slugs out of many copper coins trying to clean them.

I was pretty sure as the 3 even kind of looks like a 5. I know this from doing the same thing as you. It's good that it survived the picking. I hear you on the copper slugs-have many myself. All the best on the best on your next outing.

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Very nice Nova Scotia Halfpenny Token!

I appreciate the background history you provided too!

Dave

 

[Silvermonkey]

That is one gigantic piece of old copper. Bet it sounded great in your headphones!

 

[xcopperstax]

Gigantic copper alert! That is a great find congrats on a cool piece of history!

 

[Noah_D]

Sweet find!

 

[tcornel]

It did sound great. About 8" down under a piece of flagstone maybe 12" wide times ?? long. The rock would not move. Pinpointer had it right in the middle so I had to dig in from the side. This site had been overfilled with topsoil from the townships cleaning out the ditches. Full of cans and can slaw.

I really, really hate giving up on a signal so I kept working at it. Glad I did.

That is one gigantic piece of old copper. Bet it sounded great in your headphones!

 

[Coinstar magnet]

I find it a little humorous on the subject and size of Canadian coins because Canada is known for the huge amount of change you end up with when shopping there... $1, $2 coins etc...and they fill up your pockets quickly But congratulations on the find!