Coins, Tokens and Historical Medals

Jim Myers’ Great American Circus, brass, American eagle, rev. concentric beaded and linear circles, 28mm, 7.60g (W 966, this piece illustrated; Young, Theatres & Circus, p.138, this piece). Good fine £40-£50

Provenance: W.J. Noble Collection, Part II, Noble Numismatics Pty Auction 61B (Melbourne), 3-4 August 1999, lot 751 (part) [from S.E. Schwer 1984]; D. Young Collection, DNW Auction T18, 27 August 2020, lot 701 [from L. McCarthy November 2002].

James Washington Myers (1823-92), b Providence, RI, was apprenticed to a showman at the age of 9. In 1857 he went on a tour of Great Britain with the Howes & Cushing Circus. In 1864 he formed his own company, J.W. Myers’ Great American Circus, which toured England and Europe with some success in the late 1860s and throughout the 1870s, but the venture came to an end in October 1882 when the circus and animals were sold by auction at the North Woolwich Gardens