SOUTH CAROLINA ELEPHANT TOKEN AT KNOWSLEY HALL

Coin Discovery at Knowsley Hall, Merseyside br/> Stephen Lloyd, Curator of the Derby Collection

Following my discovery during 2012 in the archive at Knowsley of a collection of 670 previously unrecorded coins – mostly Roman – wrapped in a piece of mid-nineteenth-century paper and stored in one of the boxes relating to the 17th Earl of Derby’s passion for racing and breeding of thoroughbreds, I contacted Henry Flynn for advice at the Money and Medals network based at the British Museum.

Having published an article for the M&M Newsletter about the discovery of this accumulation of coins by various Earls of Derby, I was contacted by the Ormskirk and West Lancashire Numismatic Society. Since then two of their members, Alan Dawson and Graham Jones, have been assiduously cataloguing these coins at Knowsley on a volunteer basis, one day a month.

A compact 28-drawer Crozier mahogany cabinet has been made to store the coins, having been constructed by Peter Nichols of Nottingham. In 2014 Henry Flynn chaired a roundtable seminar at Knowsley Hall, where discoveries concerning the Knowsley hoard were presented to local museum curators from the North West. I was also able to make a short presentation that same year about the coins at a M&M Network study day at the British Museum. Research is continuing into the history and provenance of the Knowsley miscellany of coins, which date from the reign of Julius Caesar up until the late eighteenth century.

Perhaps the rarest object is a South Carolina Elephant token of 1694, which was struck in copper in London, and which were thought to been a form of advertising jettons to promote interest in the young American colony.

London Elephant tokens were struck around 1672 to 1694, probably weren’t intended to circulate in the colonies, and are available in well-worn Very Good condition for around $300.

Similar tokens dated 1694 with a reverse reading GOD PRESERVE CAROLINA AND THE LORDS PROPRIETORS were likely struck in England and were possibly intended to heighten interest in the Carolina Plantation in the American colonies.

A third variant (the rarest) states GOD PRESERVE NEW ENGLAND on the reverse; it is also dated 1694.

The Carolina Elephant token has two distinct reverse types, one with the correct spelling of proprietors and another with the misspelling PROPRIETERS. Heritage adds, “Although described in most references as different dies, the placement and shape of all lettering is nearly identical, suggesting that a single reverse die was corrected after a small production of the misspelled pieces.”

The majority of the known Carolina Elephant tokens are well-worn, grading Very Good to Very Fine. Extremely Fine and finer examples are rare. This EF-45 piece sold for $47,000.

To read the complete article, see:
1694 Elephant token promoting the Carolina Plantation in the American colonies sells for $47,000 (www.coinworld.com/news/us-coins/2014/06/1694-Elephant-token-promoting-the-Carolina-Plantation-in-the-American-colonies-sells-for-47K-at-Eric-P-Newman-auction.all.html)

For more information on the Money & Medals Network, see:
www.moneyandmedals.org.uk

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