Great Britain, Anglesey - Parys Mines Company half penny token Anglesey Parys Mine Company Halfpenny 1791 Druid PMC Monogram Conder Token gF

Anglesey, halfpenny token of the Parys Mine Company dated 1791, from the druid series, copper, milled.

Obverse: head of a druid left within a wreath of oak.
Reverse: large monogram of the company, legend ANGLESEY MINES HALFPENNY, below it the date 1791.
Edge: PAYABLE IN LONDON OR ANGLESEY.

Reference: Dalton and Hamer, Anglesey, the run 266 to 416.

In 1768 one of the largest copper deposits in the world was struck at Parys Mountain on Anglesey, and within a few years the bare red hill was the most important source of copper in Europe. Thomas Williams, whom his contemporaries called the Copper King, ran the Parys Mine Company and so faced the same problem as every large employer of those years: after 1775 the Royal Mint had stopped issuing copper, and wages still had to be paid in small change. From 1787 he therefore had pennies struck with a druid's head, and halfpennies followed in 1788. The pieces circulated far beyond Anglesey, were widely imitated, and gave the whole series its name, the Druids. The edge legends name the places where a piece could be redeemed. The heyday of these private copper pieces ended when Matthew Boulton struck the heavy cartwheel pennies for the Crown in 1797, and on 15 October 1831 all tokens of this kind lost their standing as money.

vanzandwijkmunten: because one coin is never enough.

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Coins have been part of my life for almost thirty years. It started with the things I found in the ground as a boy, and it never stopped. First the searching, then the reading and figuring out, and the collecting. Dealing came much later, and even though it is how I make my living now, I still enjoy looking at every piece the way a collector does.

Everything you see here has passed through my own hands. I describe and photograph each piece myself. There is no team behind me. You always deal with me.

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Kind regards, Vincent

vanzandwijkmunten: Because one coin is never enough

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