Coin Collector?

Question

Hi ,
Iam not a coin collector,IHave this 1857 copper coin which is a bit bigger than a penny,one side has the head of professor Holloway,
the other side has a person sitting on a throne of some sort &
the writing is Holloway's pills & ointments. London 1857.
Can you please give me some infomation on this coin.
Kevin T Brown

Answer 1

These are called hard times trade tokens or near cents. In the numismatic business they are refered to as exonumia.

Quite often in the old days real legal tender coinage was scare so businesses produced these to keep business flowing.

Q. David Bower wrote a good guide. The Standard Catalog of Hard Times Tokens.

Another guide, for UK tokens, is "Tokens and Tallies" by Edward Fletcher

Some are common and some are quite valuable, especially if they are minted on a metal other than copper.

Enjoy...

Answer 2

I presume you live in the UK. Well back in those times a lot of merchants had tokens made as advertisement pieces. Here in the states as well as England, small change was scare and these were also used as a cent here, or a penny in the UK. The British government by 1857 was fed up with the tokens that had a denomination on them, so as not to go to jail, no denomination was used, but the people accepted them as a penny anyway. In this country they often used the wording not one cent.You should be able to get some info, from your local coin dealers in the UK, or as suggested, do a Yahoo and Google search using the writing on the token.

Answer 3

The Professor Holloway Half Penny and Penny were British Colonial tokens used in Australia in the mid till end of 19th century, and were dated 1857 and 1858. They were used, along with other trader tokens, as currency when the local government did not issue enough small denomination coins for circulation. The obverse of the token features Professor Thomas Holloway of London, who was famous for his pills and ointments to cure coughs, colds, gout, rheumatism, athritis, asthma, etc. The reverse depicts Hygeia(Greek goddess of health), in seated position with a feeding snake entwined on the altar, and on her left is a pillar surmounted by globe. This token was designed by Joseph Moore, who also designed the bimetallic model penny of GB. Holloway tokens are often found in worn or corroded conditions, and is currently valued at around £15-£20 in VF grade(nicely circulated with the rims and fields undamaged and about 4/5 of Holloway's hair lines visible).

Answer 4

HI there, what you have there is not really a coin but a Medallion as it states no value and is not a legal tender. A simple google search will tell you all you need to know about Holloways pills & Ointment. If you are looking for the value of the medallion then that really depends on the conditions but to ball park it in average condition I would say about 30 US Dollars.