1790s British EVASION FARTHING, Atkins 454, unusual GEORGE V GORDON type, XF L2

Description

1790s British EVASION Copper FARTHING.  Atkins 454, Cobwright G.0020/P.0020.  Very Fine, with nice detail.  The obverse has a bust facing to right with the legend GEORGE V GORDON around (instead of GEORGIVS II REX), while the reverse has an atypical shield with the legend PEACE PLENTY around, and no date.  Darker olive brown color, the surfaces with the expected light marks from circulation, nothing too extreme.  The farthings, as a whole, are MUCH rarer than the halfpenny evasion coppers – and there are far fewer varieties too, which makes them an easy series to collect and attribute.  The entire evasion coppers series was first recorded by Atkins in his 1892 book “Tokens of the Eighteenth Century,” where he listed nearly 500 varieties.  The book had no illustrations, and the tokens were listed alphabetically by their legends, which caused some confusion since some issues have the same legends.  The Cobwright book first came out in 1987, and a second edition in the 1990’s, which also has no pictures but does a much better job (not perfect, but better) in differentiating dies, and listing many new pieces, with the varieties known to him reaching upwards of 800; the total number of varieties known could be close to 1,000 – a fascinating area which ties in nicely to counterfeit British halfpence AND the Conder Token series.  Evasion coppers may have first been made in the 1770’s and 1780;s  in limited numbers, but their peak period of production was certainly the 1790’s.    They usually have some resemblance to regal British and Irish halfpence (and occasionally farthings) of George II and George III, with legends that were purposely done to “evade” the counterfeiting laws (hence their name).  Sometimes the legends are truly garbled – GEOBGUIS TI ROX or HIRARMIA for instance, words that look “close enough” to the real legends (GEORGIUS II REX and HIBERNIA in the above examples) that someone might not notice with just a quick glance.  Other evasions have real words, GEORGE RULES or OLIVER CROMWELL, for instance, but which copy the overall design and fabric of copper halfpence and farthings.  The entire series is fascinating and an area that has just begun to be researched in-depth – Lot 2