The Important Collection of 18th Century Tokens formed by the late Dr David L Spence, of Pittsburgh (Part II)

High Holborn, Christopher Ibberson, Halfpenny, St George on horseback slaying dragon, small boar above, rev. mail & post coaches to all parts of england in wreath, edge payable at the george & blue boar london, 10.21g/6h (DH 339). Extremely fine with original colour, extremely rare, very few specimens struck (£300-400)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of 18th Century Tokens formed by Dr David L Spence.

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Collection

Provenance:
W. Longman Collection, Glendining Auction, 12-13 March 1958, lot 163
Fawcett/Litman Collection.

Christopher Ibberson, proprietor of the George & Blue Boar inn, 270 High Holborn, at the time a terminus for many of the stage and post coaches to the north. Ibberson contacted Matthew Boulton in December 1794 to order half a ton of halfpenny tokens and asked him “to send up a Pattern before you go on with them” – this is one of those ‘patterns’. Ibberson countermanded his token order in February 1795 after probably only a few hundred of the regular type (DH 342) were struck. The rarity of the ‘pattern’ is evidenced from the apparent demand for collectors for the Taylor copy in lot 1404 (Doty, SNC March 1986, pp.39-40, and CTCJ June 1999, pp.20-1)