I thought this was a 1771 British half penny but then I noticed what looks like "Isles" on one side, and that was weird so I Googled 1771 British half penny and it doesn't look like this at all. I can't figure out what it is and it's worn away in some key places that make it hard to read if you don't know what you're looking for.
It's a Bungtown imitation Halfpenny featuring George II. Obverse says "George Ruled" and reverse says "Britain's Isles". It's listed in Atkins 150.
I never heard of such a thing and Google isn't telling me a lot. Can anyone tell me a little more about these?
Minted in Bungtown (Barneysville), Rehoboth, Massachusetts around the late 18th / early 19th century. Apparently there was a copper coin shortage, so these were made and actually circulated in place of British 1/2P. There are multiple different designs and their designs were intentionally "off" so that they could not be accused of counterfeiting. And in case anyone is wondering, the Bung in Bungtown may not be what you're thinking. The town manufactured bungs (the plug in a barrel)
There were many counterfeit British half pennies in circulation in American and in England. The government simply did not issue enough pieces to supply the demand. The demand for money was way up because factory owners in England needed something to pay their employees. The most popular choice became the Condor tokens. Here there was shortage of money which was filled by counterfeiters and the official state coinages during the Confederation period in 1780s. Here is a genuine British half penny. Here is a counterfeit, which I believe, was made in England. These made it to the U.S. also. They all weighed less than the real thing. This one was made at Machin's Mills in New York And here is a low grade example which was probably made in the U.S. Any of these pieces that is dated "1776" is a counterfeit because the British didn't make any half pennies that year.
Thanks for the info. Is there another name for these or way to describe them? "Bungtown half penny" doesn't return a lot of matches on Google or eBay.
Here is some I found. https://www.angelfire.com/or2/uscoins/stories/bungtown.html https://www.pcgs.com/books/garret/chapter05/6
This whole discussion is very interesting, and I love the OP's coin. But now you've got me curious about my 1771 half penny. Is is authentic or counterfeit. The letters III and R from REX don't quite line up either with your example (1774) or with the one from Numista (1770), and the weight at 9.25g is a little shy of the listed 10 g, but it is also well worn. How much variation would there have been from year to year or die to die?
