United Kingdom, Walthamstow, Essex.  British Copper Company 1812 Copper Penny Token.  24.96 g.; 35 mm.; edge plain struck in collar; medal orientation.  Withers 562a; Davis 5 var.  BRITISH COPPER COMPANY in centre within a wreath of oak; around, SMELTING WORKS AT LANDORE *.  Acorn by the top of H; no acorn at the bottom right; 23 acorns total, 12 on left and 11 on right.  Rx Lion side, which is the true obv, but Davis set as the reverse, and established precedent.  ROLLING MILLS AT WALTHAMSTOW a lion standing left, head front; ONE PENNY / 1812 in exergue.  The 2 is under the first limb of N; the second 1 of the date is under the upright of E; the tuft of the tail points upwards, and the groundline extends a bit beyond the rear left paw.

Extremely Fine, w glossy dark brown surfaces.  Fully struck on a full flan.  The rev lion side die exhibits faint raised die fissures; one from the beginning of the date upwards touching the mane and extending to the rim at the beginning of the M; another from the rim above the H in WALTHAM extending thru the tuft of the tail to the lion\\’s head; a third from the lion\\’s left lower leg upward to the M in WALTHAM.  The groundline extends slightly longer past the lion\\’s left paw, than that of the plate example in Withers, for W.562.  Finer and more detailed than the Withers Plate Piece.   $160.

Ex Francis B. Cokayne Collection w his ticket, having purchased from the L. Clements Collection, 19 May 1908, for a halfcrown, a significant sum, indicating Cokayne\\’s keen interest in acquiring the piece, which appears as the same die as Withers 562, but is struck w a plain edge, and much scarcer.