Rev War Military, and Rare Blacksmith token!

[Iron Patch]

Today is my 15th anniversary for finding my first old coins detecting , and we did an anniversary hunt and damn was it a hunt! We started back where I had dug the early military from last post and did ok there, then walked to the middle of the next field and found a little more, walked to the bottom and found more, crossed the river and found a little site where Rev War pewters were flying... and then even one final new site which gave up quite a few small buttons and each a large copper, but little else.

The day was great. 10 large coppers, Large Rev War era Navy officer button, 4 RPs, and a crude anchor that I have no idea about, and is not in the books... but sure gives the impression of Continental Navy!


So I get home and am looking over the coppers, and cleaning what I can, and see one that catches my attention and think..... hmmm... is that what I think it might be... well probably not. I even set it aside and forget about it for 20 minutes looking at everything else.... but the 2nd time it got my attention I grabbed my book and immediately turned to the Blacksmith section and bam! What a way to celebrate my 15th Anniversary of finding my first old coins by finding my first blacksmith token! She is not beautiful, but I have been waiting most of those 15 years to get one and strange this happened to be the day. And it's a fairly rare one too!

 

[Iron Patch]

Wonder how many are have been dug and have been blown off as worn out tokens. Detecting with a couple of guys one time in a small town and the owner of a neighbouring home came out and showed us a spot where a little blacksmith shop sat. He told us that the blacksmith had produced tokens also and this information was somehow passed down through the family. We looked around the corner of the two properties but the iron just overwhelmed the machines.
What's neat is that the wide variety of tokens that we have had in circulation, and it makes for interesting finds as this one by IP. It deserves the recognition for the rarity as they're rarer than gold it seems.

No question, some would have been dug and just thought of as warn coins. Just like it would be easy for many to think a very rare British counterfeit halfpenny, or Machin's mills, was just another George III. I remember when I first got into detecting and looked though the books, I could not make heads or tales of Blacksmiths, or any type of counterfeits. They all looked the same to me, BS vs warn coins, so I assume they look that way to many others.

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

No question, some would have been dug and just thought of as warn coins. Just like it would be easy for many to think a very rare British counterfeit halfpenny, or Machin's mills, was just another George III. I remember when I first got into detecting and looked though the books, I could not make heads or tales of Blacksmiths, or any type of counterfeits. They all looked the same to me, BS vs warn coins, so I assume they look that way to many others.

P. J. does make a good point. I can think of one off the top of my head for sure when I dug it it was thin, and smallish in diameter, and Britannia was very crude thinking just a CFT threw it in the pile of junkers. I will go over them at some point. And this post will make me "think" more in the future.

 

[Iron Patch]

P. J. does make a good point. I can think of one off the top of my head for sure when I dug it it was thin, and smallish in diameter, and Britannia was very crude thinking just a CFT threw it in the pile of junkers. I will go over them at some point. And this post will make me "think" more in the future.

An easy way to rule many out as warn coins is if they have lettering as most Blacksmith tokens do not. The other thing is to look at the wear pattern, a Blacksmith often doesn't make sense because you can have strong detail right beside a place with no detail.

 

[pepperj]

P. J. does make a good point. I can think of one off the top of my head for sure when I dug it it was thin, and smallish in diameter, and Britannia was very crude thinking just a CFT threw it in the pile of junkers. I will go over them at some point. And this post will make me "think" more in the future.

It makes for a good winters project to go through the past digs and to see if there is a BST hiding in the pile. Chances are better getting one here than a Spanish or even a gold coin as the timing of the BS and the sites around here go hand and hand.

 

[Iron Patch]

It makes for a good winters project to go through the past digs and to see if there is a BST hiding in the pile. Chances are better getting one here than a Spanish or even a gold coin as the timing of the BS and the sites around here go hand and hand.

I went through every one of my coppers last night and nothing too interesting from what I could tell, but decided to clean a bunch up and have over 100 soaking.

 

[oxbowbarefoot]

Is this a find you think you'll keep or sell before someone else finds one and dilutes its rarity

 

[Iron Patch]

Is this a find you think you'll keep or sell before someone else finds one and dilutes its rarity

Keeping and not worried.

 

[johnnyblaze]

War button,Coppas and a token sounds like a good day old dog

Happy 15th anniversary

~Blaze~

 

[pepperj]

I went through every one of my coppers last night and nothing too interesting from what I could tell, but decided to clean a bunch up and have over 100 soaking.

100= over a pound? There should some interesting results in the pile.

 

[hogge]

Belated Congrats! Occasionally I see some of the chatter about Blacksmith Tokens on C-4. I've heard of them, but never paid much mind. I guess I'll have to find one now!

 

[OutdoorAdv]

IP, thanks for that link to the blacksmith tokens. I had no idea what they were when I first posted.

Basically you got a counterfeit of a counterfeit to avoid counterfeiting laws

"Comedic in their own right, the Blacksmith coppers were actually counterfeits of British-made private coppers — near counterfeits themselves with meaningless legends — struck so as to avoid counterfeiting laws on both sides of the Atlantic."

Now that's awesome, and now that I'm educated I will also be casting my vote. Once again, hellofa anniversary hunt!

 

[Ahab8]

Ok buddy after educating myself a bit on this find in going to vote Banner. Only seems fair since you voted on my dirty old ugly spoons. These obviously are scarce enough to be up top. Since nobody seems to know anything about them

 

[Iron Patch]

Ok buddy after educating myself a bit on this find in going to vote Banner. Only seems fair since you voted on my dirty old ugly spoons. These obviously are scarce enough to be up top. Since nobody seems to know anything about them

As you know, or may not know Canadian coins did not come on the seen until the mid. 1800s so before then there was various tokens... which were basically coins, but they called them tokens. The Charlton Canadian Colonial token guide is to these tokens as what the Redbook is to American coins, and Blacksmith tokens are very sought after. There is quite a few that are common, but also some that are incredibly rare... even unique. Mine is much closer on the scale to the really rare ones than to the common.

 

[Iron Patch]

My coin is basically a counterfeit of this Nova Scotia token.

 

[steelheadwill]

Outstanding !!

 

[Derek752]

Congrats I.P. ! Happy 15th and many more great finds.

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Congrats! Nice anniversary find! I vote banner, but Jeff or somebody will have to post it for me, haven't got the phone/net thing figured out yet.

 

[Mach1Pilot]

Wow IP, you did it again- what an awesome piece of history!

 

[CASPER-2]

 

[relicmeister]

Congratulations IP on your spectacular
Finds. I admit this is the first time I've
Ever heard of or seen a blacksmiths
Token. Thanks for the article link.