Notice of December Meeting

The next meeting of the Association will take place Friday, December 7^th, at 6:30 p.m. at the home of Gloria Houston, civic address 2446 on Route 224 between Wheatley River and New Glasgow.

This is a "pot luck" dinner so please bring along something tasty. Remember too our club tradition of bringing along a gift (in theory, $5 or under) for Santa to distribute to the numismatically needy!

On the Agenda

.....an informal evening at Gloria's with friends. In addition to our gift exchange we'll have a draw for special prizes contributed by Santa.

The November Meeting

The President must apologize for arriving at the November meeting with everything but copies of the agenda! These he had inadvertently left behind at home. However, the agenda was printed on a chalkboard and the meeting went ahead as scheduled.

One item discussed at the meeting concerned recent donations to the club. These are greatly appreciated, and we thank our donors. It was decided to auction off these numismatic items at our February meeting, and to advertise that fact among the membership to encourage a good turnout in the most chilly month of the year.

Also agreed upon at the meeting was establishment of a small committee to look into and bring forward suggestions and recommendations concerning future programming and the direction of the club in general. Membership and publicity were two areas specifically mentioned that needed attention as we enter the new year. Members of this committee are Clair Perry, Ralph Bagnall, and Mark Holton. They will report back in January.

The November meeting is, according to our constitution, our Annual Meeting where the executive is elected for the following year. Members decided to go with the devil they know, and the current executive was re-elected with a unanimous vote. The president did point out the other commitments of our secretary and said he would be taking minutes as best he could when the secretary was not able to be with us.

Following the meeting, members enjoyed a slide show from the C.N.A, library entitled "Changing Canadian Currency". This large set of slides presented an overview of Canadians coins, tokens and paper money from New France to the present day.

Dues Due

The by-laws of our association state that dues are paid on an annual basis. They are $15 for a single membership, $20 for a family, and $10 for a student. Please pay our Treasurer as your earliest convenience, or send payment to the president at the address at the top of the first page. This will be much appreciated by the club.

Library

Books can be a huge expense to the collector, and then there is always the problem of finding them! Coin books other than the standard Charlton guidebooks appear in our Island bookstores only rarely. Those with Internet access can find reference books fairly quickly, provided they are prepared to buy the book in question. But there is good news for the collector who is trying to identify old coins or tokens or seeks information on a particular topic and wants the use of a book for a few evenings only.

The C.N.A. Library is worth looking into. There must be several thousand books in the collection, covering all aspects of numismatics. The good news is that you can borrow these books, articles, slides, and other materials, and you can do so at a very reasonable cost, usually the cost of postage. The C.N.A. Journal has the details of how to contact the library, located not too far away from us in Shediac, New Brunswick.

A list of what's in the Library is available either in printed form or on computer disk. If you are simply curious, the PEINA president has the printed list and will be happy to lend it to you. You will see a well-organized collection which will help any collector develop the background knowledge that makes numismatics such an enjoyable hobby.

January Show & Tell

The January meeting -- that's Monday, January 21, 2002, weather permitting -- will be a "show & tell" session. Give thought now to what you'll be bringing: your most interesting item, or something whose identity continues to elude you. It doesn't have to be a coin or token. Perhaps you've found a reference book worth noting, or have some other item.Whatever it is, we'd love to see it!

Feature Article:

The Heaton Mint's Production of Canadian and Provincial Coins and

Tokens

by George Manz

Before Canadian Confederation in 1867, the only "official" Canadian coins were the Province of Canada's decimal coins of 858 and 1859. Those dated 1858 included bronze large cents as well as silver five cents, 10 cents and 20 cents. Large bronze cents were also struck in 1859. But while both large cents were minted by the Royal Mint, they were struck on blanks produced by Ralph Heaton and Sons of Birmingham.

The Heaton Mint produced also other coinage for the Canadian provinces and colonies, both before and after Confederation. While the scope of this articles certainly not all-encompassing, I hope to touch on many of the major coins and tokens that Heaton minted for use in Canada.

The Charlton Standard Catalogue of Canadian Colonial Tokens notes that the Quebec Bank half penny (un sou) and penny (deux sous) tokens of 1852 "were struck by Ralph Heaton from designs probably suggested by the Quebec Bank but it is unknown who cut the dies."

Meanwhile, the Bank of Upper Canada placed orders with the Royal Mint to produce halfpenny and one penny bank tokens, which were struck in 1850 but didn't arrive in Canada until the following year.

There weren't enough tokens to satisfy the needs of Upper Canada, however, so another order was placed in 1851. Some of the resulting 1852 halfpenny and one penny tokens were minted by the Royal Mint. But James O. Sweeny, author of A Numismatic History of the Birmingham Mint, writes that production was delayed due to more important demands on the mint. "Only a portion had been completed by the time the ocean shipping season ended in August 1852," so the dies and blanks were shipped "to the Heaton Mint for completion of the order. This was done at the Heaton Mint in 1853, using the 1852 dated dies which were then returned to the Royal Mint and destroyed."

Charlton notes that the 1852 tokens with a medal alignment were minted at the Royal Mint, while those with a coinage alignment were minted at the Heaton Mint.

The Heaton Mint also produced other halfpenny and penny tokens for the Bank of Upper Canada dated 1854 and 1857. Charlton writes that the design for these tokens was suggested by the Bank of Upper Canada and notes the dies were cut by John Pinches.

Other provinces also went to the Heaton Mint to produce coinage to satisfy their needs.

We will begin with New Brunswick. In 1843 the Province of New Brunswick decided to order the minting of penny and halfpenny tokens. "The Colonial Office," Charlton writes, "on being informed of the plan, was displeased and ordered the New Brunswick authorities to cease at once from proceeding with the proposed coinage."

New Brunswick officials informed the Colonial Office that they had terminated their agreement, but secretly went ahead with their plans anyway. To make a long story short, Britain didn't find out about the 1843 New Brunswick halfpenny and penny tokens until much later, in 1854.

"Under the provisions of the Currency Act of 1852, the government of New Brunswick in June 1853 sought permission to issue a coinage of copper pennies and halfpennies," Charlton writes. After receiving sanction from the proper authorities, the coinage was struck by Heaton & Co. from modified 1843 reverse dies and completely new obverse dies.

Charlton goes on to say the "dies were prepared by Leonard Charles Wyon, who used for the obverse head punch of the contemporary English coinage. These head punches were of the attractive young [Victoria] head designed by William Wyon.

J.A.Haxby and R.C.Willey, in their book Coins of Canada, write "the word currency was used in place of token on the reverse. The use of currency indicated the official nature of the issue and also implied Halifax Currency, the standard at the time."

Richard W. Bird, in his excellent book Coins of New Brunswick, writes that 201 boxes of the copper currency arrived on board the ship John Barbour on December 18, 1854. He goes on to note the Province's new Lieutenant-Governor, John Henry Thomas Manners-Sutton, "issued the Proclamation making the new copper currency legal on January 8, 1855."

Nova Scotia also needed small copper currency for its economy. While many semi-regal tokens had been struck for Nova Scotia from 1823 to 1843 without Britain's official sanction, the province didn't get it's first official coinage until the 1850s.

Haxby and Willey write that the halfpenny and penny tokens, which were dated 1856, "are popularly known as the Mayflower coppers because of their reverse design and are among the most beautiful of all the Canadian Colonial coppers. The master tools were engraved by Leonard C. Wyon, using his own design for the obverse and that of the Halifax botanist John S. Thompson for the reverse."

Charlton writes the two tokens "feature a sprig of mayflower, now the provincial flower." He goes to state the tokens "were produced at Heaton's Mint in Birmingham (without the 'H' mintmark), but the master tools were made by the Royal Mint."

Because so many excellent books and articles have been written about Prince Edward Island cent, this description will be brief. I'll begin by mentioning an article on the Prince Edward Island Numismatic Association's website, <www.angelfire.com/ art/peina>, under the heading "Featured Treasure". While the PEINA article on the history of the Island's only official coin is brief, it is a great place to start to find out about this important event in the province's history.

"The province of Prince Edward Island decided to adopt the Decimal Currency system from the Sterling in 1871," states the PEINA article. "The Royal Mint in London was contacted to contract for the coinage of the P.E.I. cent. The Mint told the P.E.I. Treasury that domestic requirements would be too great to leave time for the P.E.I. contract before shipping closed the first of December. They suggested that a private mint be used. On September 13, 1871, the Royal Mint in London contracted Messes. Ralph Heaton & Sons of Birmingham, England, to supply two million one cent coins by November 14, 1871."

The Currency and Medals of Prince Edward Island, by Graham, Kennedy, Becker et. al. notes the Heaton firm wasn't the only company to bid on the contract. Heaton had to compete with James Watt & Co. and the authors point out the Heaton bid was less than 15 pounds lower than their competitor.

Haxby and Willey note the obverse was designed and engraved by L. C. Wyon, while the reverse "was adapted by L. C. Wyon from the Government seal of the Island."

The P.E.I. cent has several interesting features, including being the only coin issued for British North America to use the English word "Queen" instead of the Latin "Regina". Another is that this coin was minted without the standard "H" mintmark of the Heaton Mint.

While I have several inexpensive lower grade P.E.I. cents in my collection, I have recently purchased a high grade condition-rare example: graded MS-65 red by ICCS. Mint state examples in this or similar grades have a great deal of eye appeal and are very difficult to acquire. The ICCS Population Report - January 2001 notes that fewer than 80 examples have been graded or cross-graded as mint state by the company.

After Confederation, the Dominion of Canada utilized the Heaton Mint as well. In 1871, the Dominion's order for silver coinage marked the first time the Heaton Mint had minted silver coins. Sweeny writes, "One thousand 50 cent pieces were struck on 18 December 1871 under close supervision by Royal Mint personnel. The special security measures included two night watchmen who fired a muzzle-loaded rifle at intervals during the night to let the Birmingham police know that all was well."

Sweeny goes on to write that after the initial Canadian order, "silver became commonplace at Heaton's as more and more Colonial coinage orders were received. In fact, Heaton's even received a contract in 1872 for silver blanks for use in the Royal Mint for Imperial and Colonial coinages."

The Heaton Mint produced many coins in various denominations for Canada during the 1870s, 1880s, 1890s and the early 1900s. Among them are such famous rarities as the 1875H 5, 10 and 25 cent coins and the 1890H 50 cent.

Not to be outdone, the government of Newfoundland contracted the Heaton Mint to produce a variety of coins for the island. While Heaton minted a large number of coins for Newfoundland, almost all of them had mintages of 100,000 coins or less. The rarest is the 1871H Newfoundland / Canada mule. Haxby and Willey note there are only two known examples. Brian Cornwell, in his Canadian Coin News article late last year, would rate this coin as "Excessively Rare" on his rarity scale.

But whether the coins you have with the famous "H" mintmark are common or rare, the coins and tokens minted at the Heaton Mint have fascinated collectors around the world for the last 150 years.

George Manz