British Trade Tokens, Tickets and Passes, Numismatic Books

18th Century Tokens, Glamorganshire, Glamorgan, William Taitt, Richard Crawshay and Samuel Homfray, Jorden’s Halfpenny, 1795, a trial of the rev. die in its original state on a partially struck blank for the Brimscombe Port, Thames & Severn Canal Co, Halfpenny [DH Gloucestershire 60], Britannia seated left with spear and shield, pedestal and ship in background, y brenhin ar gyfraith, rev. incuse impression of the tunnel entrance to the canal, edge payable at [b]rimscombe port, 10.19g/3h (DH 2, this piece; Waters, 1957, p.40 [’now unknown’]). Good very fine with a hint of original colour in the legends though the incuse impression somewhat weak, UNIQUE £1,000-1,500

Provenance: ‘Michael’ Collection, W. Norman Collection, Sotheby Auction, 13-15 July 1903, lot 417 (part), S.H. Hamer Collection, Glendining Auction, 26-8 Nov. 1930, lot 497 (part) [from J. Verity).

The re-appearance of this almost mythical rarity after nearly 80 years (it first surfaced in the dispersal of the ‘Michael’ Collection sometime before 1890) helps to further demonstrate the connection between the last products of the Birmingham-based Hancock/Westwood consortium, who struck halfpence for the Thames & Severn Canal Co in the spring of 1795, and the Glamorgan halfpenny of that date, which is likely to have been the first product of Hancock’s erstwhile articled apprentice, John Stubbs Jorden, as a die-sinker and medallist in his own right, and which had appeared by the end of July 1795 (Dykes, BNJ 2001, pp.121-5). That there must have been some ‘cross-over’ in the production of both issues at the time is evidenced by the reported existance of at least one Brimscombe Port halfpenny with glamorgan halfpenny edge (DH 60a) and the present piece