Offered is a copper piece, variously referred to as a Penny coin or a commemorative medal, prepared by Pidgeon & Philip for Boulton around 1814, and definately issued / circulated in and around Sierra Leone around that time, KM#TN1.1, Eimer#984. As for this dispute, we would tend to belive that it was a commemorative issue, likely imported as a medal for legal reasons, and de-facto circulated as coin owing to its size and weight relation to a Penny - indeed an early commemorative coin.
The obverse features two men facing (a European on the left, and a Native on the right), shaking hands, 5 people in the distance dancing around a tree, ‘WE ARE ALL BREATHEREN / SLAVE TRADE ABOLISHED BY GREAT BRITAIN 1807’ around. The reverse features an arabic inscription which translates to ‘SALES OF SLAVES PROHIBITED IN 1807 CHRISTIAN ERA, IN THE REIGN OF GEORGE III, VERILY WE ARE ALL BROTHERS.’ We reproduce all of this information for the obvious reason that this is a heavily worn example - unusual for this type. Indeed, the incredible wear born by this coin only serves to increase its poignancy, as it appears to have been carried as a ‘pocket piece,’ perhaps by an individual who benefitted from this incredible policy assertion. Keeping with this thread, it would be nothing less than poetic justice that the side of the liberator was the one to survive unobliterated, with the side of the enslaver is lost to history.
In all, an affordable example of a rare and exceedingly interesting type.
Offered is a copper piece, variously referred to as a Penny coin or a commemorative medal, prepared by Pidgeon & Philip for Boulton around 1814, and definately issued / circulated in and around Sierra Leone around that time, KM#TN1.1, Eimer#984. As for this dispute, we would tend to belive that it was a commemorative issue, likely imported as a medal for legal reasons, and de-facto circulated as coin owing to its size and weight relation to a Penny - indeed an early commemorative coin.
The obverse features two men facing (a European on the left, and a Native on the right), shaking hands, 5 people in the distance dancing around a tree, ‘WE ARE ALL BREATHEREN / SLAVE TRADE ABOLISHED BY GREAT BRITAIN 1807’ around. The reverse features an arabic inscription which translates to ‘SALES OF SLAVES PROHIBITED IN 1807 CHRISTIAN ERA, IN THE REIGN OF GEORGE III, VERILY WE ARE ALL BROTHERS.’ We reproduce all of this information for the obvious reason that this is a heavily worn example - unusual for this type. Indeed, the incredible wear born by this coin only serves to increase its poignancy, as it appears to have been carried as a ‘pocket piece,’ perhaps by an individual who benefitted from this incredible policy assertion. Keeping with this thread, it would be nothing less than poetic justice that the side of the liberator was the one to survive unobliterated, with the side of the enslaver is lost to history.
In all, an affordable example of a rare and exceedingly interesting type.
