Walter Breen
After 1775, the Royal Mint made no more coppers for British use until 1821. (Irish halfpence, 1781-82, did not circulate in England; 1797-1807 "cartwheel" coppers came from Boulton & Watt's Soho Mint near Birmingham, pursuant to royal warrants.) Counterfeiters promptly filled the gap with brassy imitations of halfpence of one of the Georges, of workmanship ranging from excellent to grotesque, many shipped over here. Later came fanciful pieces with evasive legends such as GEORGE RULES I BRITONS ISLES, intended to deceive only the illiterate -the so-called "bungtowns," irrelevant to America though long afterwards shipped to Canada and possibly over here.
Wyon's mint in Birmingham - the earliest of the legitimate private mints, yielding several members who accepted government positions - landed a contract with Gouverneur Morris in 1783 to make reportedly fifty tons (over 5,500,000 pieces) of CONSTELLATIO NOVA coppers, 1783-85. The maker was probably George Wyon 3rd (ca. 1744-97), assisted by the teen-aged twins Thomas and Peter George (b. 1767). A single proof is known.
40. CONSTELLATIO NOVA copper, 1783. Blunt rays, one L. Crosby 3-C. Struck twice from rudely polished dies. ,'Ex Edward E. Moore, Robert Shalowitz calls.
In 1787, the Parys Mines Co. (Anglesey) set up a mint in Birmingham under John Westwood & Co., to make the "Druid's Head" pennies and half pennies, of good copper, full weight, and redeemable. They circulated widely, becoming so popular that other Birmingham mints counterfeited them! Some of the genuine - particularly those with script D in field - are proofs. After they multiplied in dates (1787-91) and varieties (over 250, plus different edges, mulings, and metals), coin collectors began assembling them, and the token-collecting craze began. The "Druid's Head" coins were ancestral not only to later American merchants' tokens, but to many pieces collected as Colonials.
Other firms, with intent less to advertise themselves than to buy up pig copper at nine pence the pound and circulate it at from 60 to 100 halfpence the pound, issued other tokens with an enormous variety of legends and devices, and evasive inscriptions giving no clue to their manufacturer or their redeemability if any. By about 1790, hundreds of firms - many located in the Birmingham area, others using the services of Birmingham "Hard Ware" manufacturers - had gotten into the act. Thousands of different designs and over 11,000 varieties of these "Conder" tokens went into circulation - or into coin dealers' shops. Collectors were quick to form representative sets. Some more enterprising amateurs went to the Birmingham factories and had special issues made to their order in limited quantities (to create rarities), either from new dies created to their whimsy, or by muling dies not intended for each other, or with variant edge devices, or occasionally struck in silver or gold. The London coin dealers pushed this state of affairs to absurdity, creating still more minor varieties solely for collectors, as the token craze soared to its apogee in the 1790's. At that time the craze was compared to the 1635-37 Dutch tulip fad, and later it was to be compared to such American pastimes as goldfish swallowing, flagpole sitting, dance marathons, etc. A few issuers of tokens even lampooned the collectors, who bought the pieces anyway.
The reason for mention here of the British token craze is that many of the tokens intended primarily for collectors in this period - including some with American relevance -have prooflike surfaces. Some of them are of good enough die work, striking quality, and surface to give a quite creditable appearance and to invite no protest if called "Proofs." A few of these, especially those of more obviously medallic character, do seem to have been made by processes comparable to regal proofs. They also occur in other metals besides copper, but then so do some nonproofs as well.
Many, though by no means all, both proofs and nonproofs, come with edges lettered or ornamented by the Castaing machine, a French invention long in use at official mints in Britain and all over the Continent, and also long protected by oaths of secrecy (despite having been described in print!). This consisted of two parallel bars, each with half the edge inscription or ornamentation intended for the given coin or token, the bars set apart minutely less than the diameter of a planchet, one kept fixed, the other caused to move so that each planchet would roll edgewise between them, receiving half its edge device from each. In the Tower Mint this contrivance had been in use at least since the 1660's, stamping edges of gold and silver blanks with DEC US ET TUTAMEN ANNO REGNI ("An ornament and a protection") and the regnal year. But coppers, aside from occasional patterns, were not thought worth the trouble. Nevertheless, a great many late 18th century British tokens bear the firm name or address on the edge, and thousands of other varieties show crosses, leaves, diagonal reeding, or irrelevant or even evasive edge inscriptions such as CURRENT EVERY WHERE. I mention this here because some of these edges are found on coins classified as Colonials, and because many U.S. coins 1792-1836 also had their edges ornamented, reeded or lettered by a similar machine. This type of edge ornamentation became obsolete (not to say impossible) with certain mechanical changes in coin manufacturing techniques introduced in 1828 - changes very relevant to the appearance of proofs.
Since the vast majority of the "Conder" tokens present a more or less prooflike appearance, we are faced with much the same problem as that posed later on with the deceptively prooflike early strikings of Morgan dollars, Liberty Seated halves and quarters 1878-91, gold dollars and three-dollar pieces. Which were intentional brilliant proofs? Which were not? How do you tell them apart?
The presumption is that most of the tens of thousands of varieties were not given special care in manufacture characterizing intentional brilliant proofs. Some few series - those with cathedrals, some with high relief portraits - do appear to have been given such care. Striking and centering are usually good, surfaces far more mirrorlike than usual, etc. It is these which serve as our tests, compared to other coins from the same manufacturers. Mere presence of moderately prooflike surfaces is not enough.
Of the British tokens assimilated to the American Colonial series, a fairly small number of different designs come with prooflike surfaces, and decision as to whether any of these were intentional brilliant proofs must depend on comparison with actual proofs by the same makers. Fortunately, the makers of many are certainly identified.
The Washington pieces dated 1783 (except the GEORGIVS TRIUMPHO which never comes prooflike) are definitely known to have been made ca. 1810-20, thanks to the researches of George Fuld. The brilliant proof restrikes of these designs, with plain or ornamented edges, are of obvious mid 19th century fabric. They were struck by the London coin dealer W.J. Taylor in the 1850's. One of their UNITED STATES reverses comes muled with an 1851 Taylor die showing a kangaroo.
With the single extraordinary exception of No. 40 above, British-made pieces alluding to the individual colonies or to the Confederation, dated 1783-1788 inclusive, do not occur prooflike and thus do not pose a problem in the present context. Even Wyon's pattern Shillings and Decads of 1785 (respectively the IMMUNE COLUMBIA and CONFEDERA TIO pieces, the later conforming to designs worked out in Continental Congress) do not appear to have been given the proofing treatment, though should perfectly preserved specimens turn up, we may have to amend this conclusion.