{"product_id":"bl-7-blacksmith-token-very-fine-vf-20","title":"BL-7 Blacksmith Token Very Fine (VF20) $","description":"\u003cp\u003eBL-7 Blacksmith Token Very Fine (VF-20) \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAccording to McLachlan, in about 1835, a blacksmith in Montreal began to make his own halfpennies to pay for liquor. He made counterfeits of the battered, worn-out, old English and Irish regal halfpennies of George III. His dies were purposely left unfinished in order to create the appearance of a badly worn token. His halfpennies were then artificially darkened, probably by overheating, to create the illusion of age. Only a crude outline of the type was cut, without a date or legend. A peculiarity of these pieces is that the types are almost always reversed because the die-sinkers cut the types on the dies to face the same way as on the tokens they used as models. These pieces were accepted in trade because of the insatiable demand for small change in Lower Canada at the time, particularly in Montreal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBL-7 Variety: \u003cbr\u003eObverse: Laureate bust of George III, eyebrows flush with forehead, the neck merges into the chin and the mouth is open. The back of the head is incomplete. The loops of the bow are small and the ribbons are of equal length. \u003cbr\u003eReverse: A tall, thin Britannia seated right copied from the English regal copper of 1770-1775 with a small shield.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSpecifications: \u003cbr\u003eComposition: Copper \u003cbr\u003eWeight: 4.6 to 5.7 g \u003cbr\u003eDiameter: 27.4 mm \u003cbr\u003eDie Axis: ↑↓ \u003cbr\u003eEdge: Plain\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Colonial Acres Coins","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49206057894177,"sku":"BT-0725","price":112.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0679\/1744\/7457\/files\/BT-0725-2_62eebca8-d7b4-4381-a819-3167e4739a50.jpg?v=1719925144","url":"https:\/\/www.colonialacres.com\/products\/bl-7-blacksmith-token-very-fine-vf-20","provider":"Colonial Acres Coins","version":"1.0","type":"link"}