Important British and World Coins, Tokens, Historial and Art Medals, Numismatic Books and Banknotes

18th Century Tokens, Middlesex, Uncertain locality, Joseph Askins, Jacobs’ Halfpenny, 1796, man standing with wooden leg, rev. legend in four lines, edge engrailed, 9.37g/6h (DH 252). Minor surface marks, otherwise extremely fine with a hint of original colour, rare (£80-100)

Joseph Askins (b.1771), a one-legged potato planter from Walsall, used his peg leg for drilling holes to drop the seed potatoes in. He developed an astonishingly convincing voice-throwing technique which he would demonstrate at local shows and pageants. In 1796, word of his talents reached London and he was engaged for two weeks at the Sadler's Wells Theatre as The Man With One Leg and Two Voices. The show was a phenomenal success, and in the course of a two-year run Askins single-handedly established ventriloquism as mainstream entertainment