This listing is for the photographed 1815 Halfpenny Token Nova Scotia Miles W. White Type. This is for the actual coin pictured. Amazing piece of history. More information on this coin type below. Excellent detail, and a great piece for a collection. A very rare type of half penny token from this period.
Obverse: HALF PENNY TOKEN 1815 Barrell
Reverse: IMPORTER OF IRON MONGERY HARDWARES & C / PAYABLE / BY / MILES W / WHITE / HALIFAX / N S.
A scarce token in any case. Interesting as a full-weight private issue. McLachlan notes that “Hardware firms seem to have done the larger part of the business of supplying the country with copper coinage.” White, a hardware merchant in business between 1812 and 1822, issued tokens of full weight, a practice seldom followed by his contemporaries.
Miles W. White, a native of Shelburne, Nova Scotia, opened a hardware and ironmongery business in Halifax in 1812. His firm was one of several that supplied small copper change to the local inhabitants. These commercial tokens provided the small change necessary to carry on business transactions in a country often beset by shortages of regal coin.
In 1815 Miles White put out an issue of copper tokens which were redeemable at a halfpenny each at his place of business. One of these tokens is featured. The side illustrated carries the particulars relating to the issuer while the side not illustrated shows a cask containing spikes and nails within a circle. Above the circle are the words HALFPENNY TOKEN and below the circle the date 1815. Miles White, his brother Cornelius and a George B. Creighton formed a partnership in 1816 which carried on business under the name of White, Creighton and Co., but the new firm did not issue tokens.
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