Error coin, but (not american)

[Don in SJ]

Back in 1988, in a field that was a great homestead for finding buttons and coins over the years, not to mention arrowheads, I found this strange thin copper. Well, I think back then I did ID it correctly and it is an 1841 Haiti 1 Centive. I never gave it much of a look after IDing the coin at the library, but today when Evolution posted his Hard Times Token, I got my finds out and I believe this copper was lost in the field for one reason, it was being used as a legal tender coin during the Hard Times. I seem to remember that almost any coin from any country was accepted during the Hard Times when there was a severe shortage of coins.

So I got the coin out today and noticed that mine is an error coin, not sure if that means much on a coin from Haiti, but still kind of nice seeing the overstrike of the AN 38. (AN equates to 38th year from when Haiti declared Independence from France(1803) My coin is dated 1841, thus the AN 38 on the coin, I do not remember what AN actually stands for.

Researched a bit further and I would think this coin was perhaps minted in France, England or Spain, just not sure.

So, basically, I think this was used during the Hard Times, just like Hard Times tokens were, and that I also noticed, the coin has a Liberty Cap on top of the column, cool. But the overdate is something I really never noticed before, wonder if that is common on those coins?

Don

 

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[Mackaydon]

Don is SJ:
Just a guess about the "AN" designation: It represents the 'anivesario' in years from the Battle of Vertieres in 1803--that led to Haiti's independence the following year.
Don....(in SD)

 

[Iron Patch]

Pretty cool. An overdate might be common on those but worth checking out. I don't discount a coin from being valuable just because it's foreign. A while back I had a mix of foreign coins and one was from Argentina, 1890s. It was a very high grade but I still didn't think much of it. To make a long story short I sold it for over $300.

 

[Siegfried Schlagrule]

From the founding of the United States until February 1857 all foriegn coins traded as their United States counterparts - size for size and metal for metal. At that time they were outlawed and could no longer be used in trade. Most purists will accept any coin dated 1856 and earlier that is similar in size to a US coin as legal tender and keep them in their US coin collections. Copper coins would need to be at least quarter size to have passed as half cents. Large coppers of the world passed as large cents. Hard times tokens and canada bank tokens all passed as US large cents. nice find, siegfried schlagrule