Many of you will have heard of these (am sure some of you even have them) but I thought seeing as I had a few of these out tonight I would put a post up giving the basics of what these are and how they came about, a token history indeed!. I just enjoy having a few around as they are such a nice link to our mining past 😉 . As these are of a general interest to me I don't go for mint specimens and I apologise for any drop offs below in advance as I lack the detailed knowledge of the experts re patterns issued etc :smartass: .
The best known of the mine related Cornish pennies were issued in 1811 and 12. Due to various economic factors in the late 18th century due in part to the French war the price of all precious metals inc copper rising substantially in price. The coinmaker Boulton when producing the Cartwheel coins was paying up to £140 per ton of copper and after milling the coins were worth £149, 6s, 8d per ton to market. Thus at the time the coins intrinsic value was in essence correct for the times.
However during the first 8 years of the 19th Century the value of copper rose to £200 per ton meaning that huge profits could be made by melting down the Cartwheel pennies and selling the metal as it was worth more than the face value (huge amounts of coin disappeared)! The government of the time (1806/7) issued lighter versions of coin but insufficient to meet the needs of the population in general and a serious shortage of copper coinage followed. Melting down of the Cartwheels stopped circa 1810 when the copper price slumped which was also very bad news for the mines as well as the melters. The copper companies profits were falling fast so one option to mitigate this was to issue token coinage. The larger companies went for this and ordered large quantities of tokens to pay their work forces. These tokens could be redeemed for goods and then exchanged for notes accordingly with the mine who would honour the value.
The Cornish pennies were issued by the mine owners of the era, these being Lord Dunstanville (of Basset and Dolcoath fame), John Williams (of Scorrier House-Gwennap Mines) and the various adventurers of West Wheal Fortune. There was also the Rose Copper Co tokens issued in large quantities to miners from its Redruth base but stating they could be redeemed in Birmingham and Swansea on the token with no mention of Cornwall.
The Cornish pennies were designed and made in Birmingham by Thomas Halliday and as a general rule weighed two thirds of an ounce akin to the Cartwheel pennies.
Although initially these Pennies were well received confidence wavered when rumours spread that some companies in other parts of the UK had failed to honour their tokens, at one point rumours spread that the Rose company were not honouring their tokens which lead to this being refuted via the West Briton paper in July 1812. Needless to say tokens were not to last due to the spectre of forging / light issues and the Williams issued and Dolcoath issued tokens appear to be officially called in during 1813. It appears that some makes of Cornish pennies may have lingered onto 1818 when all such coinage ceased to be legal tender. 😞
There are various known patterns but the photos below show some the main types issued in Cornwall and one for Devon.
The first picture shows 6 different sorts and the second shot the reverse face.
The 3rd pic shows a small selection of industry related inc a Rose issue.
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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh Creeper!!!!!