Notice of October Meeting

The next meeting of the PEINA will take place at the library of Colonel Gray Senior High School, 175 Spring Park Road, on Monday, October 21, 2002. The meeting time remains unchanged, 7 p.m. for the early arrivals with our formal session starting at 7:30 p.m.!

On The Agenda

Thanks to the help of Geoff Bell, Librarian of the C.N.A. (as well as its President), we'll all be going for a swim!

We have been able to borrow a videotape of a programme first broadcast on The Discovery Channel, called Treasures of a Lost Voyage. This video presents an exciting account of the loss and rediscovery of the steamship Central America, which sank 200 miles off the Carolina coast in 1857. On board was a huge cargo of gold, the product of the California gold rush, which was later to be auctioned off and created quite a stir in the numismatic world.

This video has been presented by other clubs, and has drawn rave reviews. Make every effort to come out and join your friends for this informative evening of numismatic entertainment..

Also on the agenda: an invitation from Earl Salterio regarding an invitation from the A.N.A., as well as a query from the APNA regarding the possibility of this club hosting of the 2003 Spring Show. I am sure both will generate a good discussion.

Rare book on Canadians coins and tokens

Thanks to our good friend Greg Spinelli of the Halifax Regional Coin Club, we have a photocopy of a rare and early Canadian coin publication. It is a list of coins and tokens put together by W. R. McColl of Owen Sound, Ontario, round about the turn of the last century.

Interesting, the Ewan McLeod token from Wheatley River is offered for 20 cents while "P.E.I., the Blacksmith half-penny, very rare" is offered for $4.50 Don't you wish you could still buy at those prices!

A photocopy of this publication is available for loan to any member with hard-to-identify tokens. Already, some interesting "finds" of information have been made with this list.

Our thanks to Greg for parting with this for a few days while a copy could be made.

At The Last Meeting

Through the kindness of Harry Eisenhauer, we were able to have an auction at the September meeting and add $62.50 to the club treasury.

Since then, Harry has sent us a number of other items and we shall auction them at the November meeting. Let's follow this with a "housecleaning" night and follow our auction with a session of buy-sell-trade. Bring along anything you wish to dispose of, including books and supplies.

Moncton A.P.N.A. Show

The members of the Moncton Coin Club are to be congratulated for the most enjoyable fall rally held on the weekend of October 5-6 at the downtown Howard Johnson hotel. It was great to see so many friendly and familiar faces, make some new friends and have a chance to browse through a wide range of numismatic material.

The weekend opened on Saturday evening with a reception hosted by The Coin Cabinet. Speeches were kept short, and there was much pleasant conversation amid the renewal of old friendships.

The bourse opened at 10 am Sunday morning. The bourse was shared with dealers in cards, other collectibles and militaria and there seemed to be a steady stream of

Prince Edward Island Numismatic Association

c/o 10 Edinburgh Drive

Charlottetown, P.E.I.

C1A 3E8

(902) 566-5837

Member of the Canadian Numismatic Association

(# 12576) since 1976 and

the Atlantic Provinces Numismatic Association (# 64)

Club Executive

President

Mark Holton

<holton@islandtelecom.com>

Vice President

Ralph Dickieson

Secretary

Harley Ings

Treasurer

Gloria Houston

Website

Gary Woodhouse

Club web site

www.angelfire.com/art/peina

This newsletter

...is published every month except July and August by the P.E.I. Numismatic Association.

[continued from page 1]

visitors all day through the bourse and display areas.

The Members' displays were small in number, unfortunately, but many appreciative comments were heard. The first place medal went to Doug Shand of the Sou'Wester Coin Club for his display of coins salvaged from the wreck of H.M.S. Tilbury, a British 60 gun warship lost off the coast of Cape Breton Island in 1757. Second place was won by Mark Holton of PEINA for a display of Conder tokens, 1787-1797, and third place was taken by Jeff Wilson of the Halifax Regional Coin Club for his dazzling display of transportation proof coinage. Also worth noting was a fascinating collection of banknotes, presented alphabetically in three display cases and showing a note for every letter of the alphabet. The note for letter C was from China and it caught this writers eye as it featured older Chinese banknotes as part of the design. The note, itself, was issued to celebrate Y2K and its bright red design was very sharp indeed. It was displayed (like all the others) in crisp uncirculated condition.

Paper Money Publication Released

Collectors of notes issued by Canadian note issuing banks will welcome the appearance of the long-awaited fourth edition of Canadian Bank Notes from publisher The Charlton Press. This is a hefty piece of work, a collaboration among a great many senior collectors and clearly a labour of love. It is packed with information, and is an essential reference book for any Canadian numismatist. The book offers the most up-to-date account of Canadian notes from all the known banks, as well as a brief history of each bank, information on dates of issue, signature combinations, the works! The issue price is $74.95 and while this may discourage some collectors, the book is too useful not to have in your library. The motto "Buy the book before the coin" certainly applies in this case, even if your interest in Canadian banknotes is as a generalist rather than a specialist.

In my quick browse through this book I spotted only one error which now comes to mind, on page 514, one of the founders of the Zimmerman Bank was Luther H. Holton, not Holden. Holton and Zimmerman were in the railway business together in the 1850s, so it comes as no surprise that they were involved in a banking venture as well.

A.P.N.A. News

The Moncton weekend included a general meeting of APNA members and President Shand and his executive are to be congratulated for a reasonably short and certainly business-like meeting. It is a gathering like that which shows the amount of work that is done year round by the people who volunteer to work on our behalf.

Several items are worth bringing to the attention of PEINA members.

First, APNA succeeds only because it is supported by numismatists everywhere. Lately, numbers have been static and to encourage more collectors to get on board, a special introductory membership fee of $5 is being offered for 2003. This is a great deal, and includes the lively and informative newsletter, The Atlantic Numismatist. It's true, some folks might not renew after their $5 year expires, but we hope that the benefits of having your own membership, with the newsletter coming right to your door, will convince you to renew at the regular rate for 2004. The "regular rate", by the way, is also a great numismatic bargain.

The APNA membership form was included in the last PEINA newsletter, and as a reminder, it is included again. The president will be pleased to accept your $5 at our next meeting and will forward it to the PEINA treasurer without delay.

Secondly, the question of the newsletter was briefly touched on. Articles about coins and tokens and notes, even if you don't have the full story, can be wonderfully helpful to others. The recent Garden Club article has resulted in several additional medals being found, something which would not have happened had it not been for Garth Chalmers publishing the initial article. So, if you have an interesting item or group of items, and feel "there must be more of them somewhere", publishing what you know may indeed result in additional information being uncovered.

A third item to pass on to PEINA members concerns the APNA's collection of show medals. Some of that collection was on display in Moncton and it was indeed a most impressive selection. Included elsewhere is a "want list" of items which have so far eluded the collection, including the PEINA 1999 Fall Rally in pewter with black lettering. If anyone has an example which they are willing to part with, by sale or by gift, please see Mark Holton at the next meeting or contact Randy Larsen, custodian of the collection.

Another item worth mentioning is the offer for free advertisements in The Atlantic Numismatist. Notices for items wanted, for trade and for sale are welcome, provided they are three lines (or less). The latest newsletter (which I'll have with me at the October meeting) has all the details.

Annual General Meeting

The November meeting is, according to our constitution, our AGM and at that time, we are called upon to nominate an executive for 2003. Please keep this in mind, and have a word with one of the present executive if you would like to have your name put forward.

Who was James Conder?

I've been running into this guy a lot lately.

First, I am invited to a friend's home in Charlottetown to inspect a tin box full of (mostly) Canadian and P.E.I. colonial coppers. I find two Conder tokens. Then, a friend in Nova Scotia e-mails me some pictures of tokens to be identified which, as it turns out, happen to be Conders. Then, at the APNA show in Dartmouth last spring I have a cheerful day with friends and look at a lot of coins and, there they are again, more Conder tokens.

That same day in Dartmouth, in conversation with a collector from Nova Scotia -- I think he said he came from the numismatic capital of Lunenburg County -- I am asked "what are Conder tokens". So, this short piece which follows is an attempt to answer that question.

By profession James Conder (1763-1823) was a businessman, a linen draper and haberdasher, living in Ipswich, England during the reign of George III. Conder's hobby was collecting tokens. In particular, his great interest was the series of copper tokens, mostly halfpennies, which had begun to appear in the late 1780s. These tokens had been issued by a variety of people all over England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, to address the pressing shortage of small change. This situation would continue until Matthew Boulton's 1797 "cartwheel" coppers began to appear in quantity.

In 1798, Conder published An Arrangement of Provincial Coins, Tokens and Medallets issued in Great Britain, Ireland, and the Colonies, within the last Twenty years from the Farthing to the Penny Size. Today, Conder's name is widely used to refer to the series.

The current "standard reference" to Conder tokens is "Dalton and Hamer", sometimes referred to simply as D&H. First published in 1910, the most recent D&H covers over 560 pages. Many of the 6000 or so tokens -- and I have seen various estimates of just how many there are -- are reproduced. For the record, the book is R. Dalton and S. H. Hamer, The Provincial Token-Coinage of the 18^th Century, reprinted 1990 with introductory notes and additions up to 1996, published by Davisson's Limited, Cold Spring, MN, 56320. The ISBN for the copy I have before me is 0-9627694-0-1. Beware: this is not an inexpensive purchase and the cost of shipping from the USA can be as breathtaking as the price of the book! However, if you are a Conder fan, the book is indispensable. Several dealers offer this book and it isn't too hard to find. Try <www.abebooks.com>.

How did these tokens come about? There are several reasons. A lack of small change is usually the reason given, and the ingenuity of some entrepreneurs in solving this problem. Copper is not a "noble metal" like silver or gold and consequently government concern for the small change of daily life was not great. Even silver coins had not been produced in Britain in any significant quantity since the 1750s, and when the need for copper coins was finally recognized, it would not be made at the Royal Mint. Production was farmed out, to Boulton of Soho.

Therefore, for a variety of motives, merchants and others stepped forward and issued their own coin. Why? Because the Industrial Revolution was taking place, and folks were moving from the farm to the factory. Economic conditions were changing -- no pun intended -- and the rural system of barter and informal exchange was giving way to a cash system.

As Richard Doty points out in his study of Matthew Boulton, "the aspiring mill owner discovered that he could only attract workers in a particular way, and with a particular commodity. And the aspiring millhand found that he could only survive in a new area full of strangers if he received a particular commodity. The commodity in both cases was coin: the Industrial Revolution was based on the payment of regular wages, in the form of coinage. And since wages were uniformly low (the millhand might expect to receive six or seven shillings per week, if he were lucky), what the Industrial Revolution initially and most urgently required was a large number of low-denomination coins. Without that money, wages could not be paid. And without monetary wages, only a fool would leave the clear air of Norfolk for the sooty air of Leeds, or Manchester, or Hull - or Birmingham."

This cash was not terribly sophisticated, made up mostly of pennies and especially halfpennies, but it served for the purchase of bread and beer and beef and eggs and the other staples of the new urban market. That, and for paying wages.

There are a few other things which also promote the appearance of these tokens. First, the development of copper mines in various parts of the British Isles and the resulting desire to see that copper put to use. Second, the rise of a middle class entrepreneurial type, the "self-made man" who did not stop at the first roadblock (such as a lack of sufficient coins in circulation) that was encountered. Third, Matthew Boulton and his steam presses at the Soho Mint, which could produce tons of halfpennies in a fairly short period of time, and do so to a very high standard. Each coin was identical, perfectly round, of full weight, bearing an easily recognized image, with perfect edges, not very easy to counterfeit. Other private mints also existed, and it seems that all were kept busy.

Thus the appearance of the tokens, first in the hundreds, then in the thousands. Most were produced for a specific local area, and many of them gave the name of the merchant or business responsible for issuing the token and where it could be redeemed, converted into royal money. Quite often, the names of these places appear incused on the edges of the coin. At first, the weight of these coppers was up to the official standard although later, thinner planchets appeared. The temptation to make a little extra proved too tempting to some.

For their subject matter, token designers turned to a huge variety of images including, immodestly enough, the very merchants responsible for the token.

Thus we have one of the first series bearing the likeness, in profile, of the iron master John Wilkinson. Other "heroic" types were soon to

illus: 1788 John Wilkinson token

appear, including historical figures, victorious military and naval leaders, even a successful bookseller, as well as others not easily categorized. Collectors of this series have, however, a wide variety of other subjects from which to choose.

Most popular are those Conder tokens with an architectural subject, and these ranged from castles to significant buildings -- the East India Company's headquarters, theatres, the Bank of England -- as well as bridges (the iron bridge at Coalbrook Dale being one of the most commonly appearing) and factories. One other interesting theme through which to approach this series: those halfpennies which illustrate, through mills and mines and machines, the advent of the Industrial Revolution. Indeed, a book on this theme has been published, English Trade Tokens; The Industrial Revolution Illustrated (London: 1962), by Peter Mathias. My copy cost me $20 at a second-hand bookstore in Halifax.

There are many sources of these Conder tokens, ranging from eBay and dealers' websites to shows like APNA to dealers' over-the-counter stock. Conders in top condition, with original lustre, can fetch some very high prices ($150 US and up) but tokens in F and VF can be had in some cases for just a few dollars. For enthusiasts, there

is an international Conder Token

Collectors' Club and a growing body of literature and information, much of it accessible on the Internet. One very informative essay is that by Smithsonian curator Richard Doty, "English Merchant Tokens", published by the Chicago Coin Club and available at <www.ece.iit.edu/~prh/coins/PiN/emt.html>. And, there are a number of dealers who specialized exclusively or almost exclusively in Conder tokens. They can be found easily by searching the net, and www.alltheweb.com is a good place to start looking.

One point collectors must keep in mind is the fact that the Dalton and Hamer book catalogues Conder tokens by county, alphabetically. This, if you see a Birmingham halfpenny, or a token payable in Portsea, you have to know that Birmingham is in the English county of Warwickshire and Liverpool will be catalogued under Lancashire! A county map of the British Isles will be as useful as a magnifying glass!

What do Conder tokens have to do with collecting coins in Canada? It is this writers belief that Conders are a missing (or perhaps simply under-recognized) area of Canadian numismatics. Conders have been found here, along with other British, Irish and Scottish tokens of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, precisely because immigrants, seafarers and the military brought them here in their pockets and purses. That's why, when an family accumulation of "old coins" is inspected, a few of the tokens will be Conders of 1787-97. Not appearing in Breton or any of the other "standard" reference works, Conders have consequently been neglected as a collecting area. Indeed, the copper token dated between 1787 and 1797 is likely to be the dealer's poor orphan, unloved and unwanted and passed over by almost all collectors in favour of sticking to Breton's list and what he decided was "Canadian".

Next time you come across a copper token bearing that range of dates, with fine edge lettering and perhaps of unusual design, it's probably a Conder. Don't put it back. Instead, call me. I'll be right over! -mbh

Scripophily

Ever wonder what that word means? Readers of the July/August 2002 book review section in the Journal of the Canadian Numismatic Association will know the answer.

Scripophily is explained as "the hobby of collecting stocks and bonds" and Krause Publications has brought a hefty reference catalogue on this subject. With over 6500 listings and 2500 photos covering some 75 countries in 700-plus pages, this book also includes a 10 page introductory section explaining the history of stocks and bonds as well as tips on collecting. Usually I would not pay too much attention to this book, but at the past two APNA shows I have seen some stock certificates and bonds offered for sale. In Dartmouth I picked up a lovely German bond, with a sheet of coupons, all for one loonie! Mind you, I'll never see those 10,000 marks which is the par value of the bond, but it demonstrates a lovely printing job and is a minor historical document. Within a short period of time, inflation reduced the value of the bond to zero.

Reminder

That the next meeting of the PEINA takes place in the Colonel Gray library, on Monday the 21 of October, 7 for 7:30 pm.