Genealogy Chat

Try googling, Lou

Is there anyone out there that knows about old coins ,or can point me in the right direction.My friend has a coin that belonged to her g-grandad.It looks like an old penny.Dated 1814 and 1816.it has Wellington on one side and britania on the other side.But it also has some strange marks on it .There is an imprint of an old clay pipe,a heart and a p.On the other side is a heavier inprint of the letters WC AHH.All these are inprinted on top of the usuall penny markings.Round the outside it says Wellington Victory.Any ideas anyone ?.

Found the following description - not quite the same as yours (unless the harp picture looked like a pipe and the crown like a harp!) but it explains the origins of such coins: '1816 Wellington Token, By Nic Martin On the seventh of April, 1815, the Duke of Wellington won at Waterloo, thus putting an end to Napoleon Bonaparte's conquest of Europe. Wellington was a hometown hero! During and after the Napoleonic war, a need for small change had arisen; so from 1813-1818, Edward Stephens of Dublin produced large numbers of copper tokens. Naturally, many depicting The Duke of Wellington were produced. Large numbers of tokens were made in Ireland (The Duke of Wellington was from an Anglo-Irish family). The copper token that was found is dated 1816, it has a diameter of 17mm and a thickness of 1mm. On the obverse side (the side with date) has a regal harp (the Irish crest) and the words 'Waterloo half penny'and the date. The reverse side (the back) has the bust of Wellington and the words 'The illustrious Wellington'.

Look for 'coin dealer' in yellow pages......... Reg

Thanks for your replies.I would'nt know what out of that lot to put to google.but I'll give it a try.I think if I contacted a coin dealer all they would want to do is buy it not give info on it.