Lower Canada Tokens-Broadstruck's thread continued

rwyarmch

1837 Habitant halfpenny with City Bank on the ribbon (LC-8A2, Breton 522). Looks like Courteau 2f to me based on Doug's diagnostics.

colonialtokens

Help

webmaster or someone

I just spent half an hour on a reply to this thread
and something happened when I submitted it.

Poof. Can it be retrieved.

doug

colonialtokens

I'll try this again.

This token is difficult to attribute due to photo the photo provide.
When I endeavour to enlarge the photo (ctrl and scoll bar) the
images become distorted and fuzzy.

In any event this appears to be Dr. Courteau variety 2f. The quotes
are from Dr. Courteau's work. To wit:

'letter of in PRIVINCE recut inside.' I can detect a defect at the
lower left section of the inner edge of the circle and at the upper
right edge of the same circle.

'right ceriph of V defective.' obvious.

'Top and bottom of S in BAS defective.' From the photo I can not
determine this diagnostic. Perhaps under a microscope the defects
are more apparent.

'Right foot of first A in CANADA on-line with that of N.' The Stand
of the right leg of the 1st A is on-line with the Stand of the N. This
is obvious.

'second A plainly recut inside.' This is obvious. Notice that all three
A's are recut. Dr. Courtau's failure to mention this does not negate
they are there, he merely did not identify each and every diagnostic.
I do not recall seeing all three A's recut, but then I have never seen
this variety.

'Middle cross-bar of letter F recut inside.' This is a rather unique
description. Dr. Courteau habitually uses 'perfect F,' 'entirely double-cut,'
'upper half double-cut,' etc. The normal recutting shews a rather large
wide vertical mass above the cross-bar. From what I can ascertain from
the photo, this recut appears neater and more delicate. Perhaps this is
what was meant by the use of this different term.

'Ornamental leaf opposite N in Concordia double, flat and granulated.
From the photo provided, when enlarged, all appears to be distorted
and granulated. Perhaps in hand the surface is more granulated than
found on the other features. A line is evident along the right-side of
the leaf. Under proper magnification, this could be doubling. The
leaf does appear flatter than the others.

'Garter end clear from outer rim.' obvious.

'Right point of the ribbon to the right does not show.' The left point
shews clearly. The tip of the right ribbon does not shew.

"IF" all these markers are present this is the PROOF specimen. Dr.
Courteau mentions the specimen he viewed was from Dr. Lees. I
do not know the population of the PROOFS. Can the pedigree be
traced?

Great Token. Thanks for sharing.

p.s. if the markers do not match, well, back to the drawing board.

doug

rwyarmch

Thanks Doug! No idea of the provenance of this halfpenny. Saul Hendler supplied half of my pre-confederation proofs
(including the Habitant penny) but where he got them is a mystery.

A couple close-ups of the leaves opposite the N in concordia and the S in BAS.

Bob

colonialtokens

Terrific

The markers match.

Now I can say I have seen a good photo of one.

p.s. The enlarged photos put any questions to rest.

One difficulty with Dr. Courteau's work is in determining
what his terms meant. What is meant by 'defective' ?
How severe is the defect ? Better, perhaps would have
been 'slightly defective.'


doug

Broadstruck

colonialtokens could you please turn on your private message feature?

colonialtokens

done

doug