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England - 1791

Shakespeare halfpenny

Obverse:

Bust of Shakespeare.

Legend:

WARWICKSHIRE. A trefoil after legend.

Size:

30.4 mm.

Reverse:

Commerce is seated on merchandise, a cornucopia supported on her left shoulder.

Legend:

HALFPENNY .

Exergue:

1791

Vern's Comments:

BELL

N^o 1 D&H 46

COUNTY Farrar, J. (?)
   Obverse :- Bust of Shakespeare. Legend :- WARWICKSHIRE with a small ornament as a stop.
   Reverse :- Commerce sitting on a corded bale of merchandise, with her right hand extended and supporting a cornucopia on her left shoulder. The stern of a ship is shown to the left.
   Legend :- HALFPENNY. with 1791 in the exergue.
   Edge :- Plain.
Diesinker, Mainwaring; manufacturer, Lutwyche. Ten tons struck. There are· four varieties, D&H 45-8, the last very rare, the others are becoming scarce. They are fine heavy coins and therefore many will have been melted down for scrap, and the portrait of Shakespeare provides an attraction to others than numismatists.

Comments. Unfortunately the token does not bear the issuer's name or the place of issue, but Samuel suggests it was Joseph Farrar, a tea dealer with a shop in Temple Street, and a warehouse at No. 38 Bull Ring, Birmingham. He appears to have been an agent for the Phoenix Fire Insurance Office, and also to have been in partnership with a Mr. W. Goode of No. 11 New Street, as an auctioneer. Farrar advertised his groceries, etc., in poetic effusions. When he died he bequeathed sixpence a week to be paid for ever for keeping clean the statue of Lord Nelson in the town.

Commercial Coins 1787-1804., pp. 190-191

England — Warwickshire

D & H 46 — County

Bell Pg: 190-191

O: Bust of Shakespeare. WARWICKSHIRE. A trefoil after legend.

A. 26

R: Similar to preceding, excepting that the fruit hangs over the lower edge of the cornucopia, whereas in the former it is contained within it.

Preceding reverse: A female seated, supporting a cornucopia, part of a ship in the distance. HALFPENNY. Ex: 1791.

Shakespeare halfpenny