George III Mail Coach ‘Halfpenny’

Triton XVI, Lot: 1593. Estimate $1000. Sold for $1500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

HANOVER. George III. 1760-1820. CU ‘Halfpenny’ (29mm, 8.44 g, 6h). Domestic counterfeit imitating a regal issue, overstruck on a J. Palmer ‘Mail Coach’ token. Uncertain date, possibly 1775. [GEO]RGIVS · [I]II · REX ·, laureate and armored bust right / [BRITANNIA ·], Britannia seated left on globe, holding laurel branch and transverse scepter; garnished Union shield to right. DH (Middlesex) 363 (for undertype). EF, attractive brown surfaces. Very rare and interesting overstrike.

Though a common series to encounter heavily counterfeited, non-regal halfpennies from the reign of George III overstruck on contemporary halfpenny-weight trade tokens are much rarer, especially with the undertype so visible as with this example. In this case, the J. Palmer ‘Mail Coach’ token was issued circa 1795, with the subsequent overstriking of a back-dated imitative die pairing occurring in the very late 18th/very early 19th century.