Early Small Penny , Token? Coin?, Need Help

[balkania05]

Found this piece inside one old wooden box.  10 mm diameter, 0.8 grams, copper, Double Sided "One Penny"

[b-17blinker]

I can't identify it, but the wreath of laurel and oak leaves is a common design on the reverse of civil war tokens. They usually have "NOT ONE CENT" on them. As you may know, the penny is a British denomination, although we often call cents pennies.

Thanks for sharing it.

[balkania05]

It's much much smaller and thin than war tokens. My guess will be that was used in one of the British Commonwealth territories, maybe British India? 

[agathetyche]

That's a curious one. Even assuming it's a mule, using two reverse dies, I don't ever remember seeing a token that small with a penny denomination. They are usually the size of the old English pennies. Only thing I can think of might be an island in the Caribbean, where they used a mixture of English, Spanish and American denominations. 

[agathetyche]

Another possibility is a piece of play money. But it seems too well made for that. 

[elheron-grande]

Play money is what Heron thought about when first viewing the 1 Penny token.  Heron cannot remember ever seeing this particular design of token.  Perhaps it WAS used in the Caribbean area.  Maybe a saloon token?  Or souvenir item?  It is a neat 1 Penny token.  

[*smedley*]

diameter? weight? thickness?

[b-17blinker]

It was in small print at top of 1st photo:

Found this piece inside one old wooden box. 10 mm diameter, 0.8 grams, copper, Double Sided "One Penny"

[*smedley*]

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@b-17blinker wrote:

It was in small print at top of 1st photo:

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glasses? sheesh...

[balkania05]

Looks like a legit coin/token and my guess is that is around 1860. In that box where I've found this piece were other  very old British Coins (Commonwealth). I have some nice early tokens (British) but hard for me to believe somebody would struck in that condition a play token.  Do you think it can be an essay?

[balkania05]

diameter 10 mm, 0,8 grams, thickness 0.7 mm

[*smedley* · Accepted solution]

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@balkania05 wrote:

Do you think it can be an essay?

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an essai? no...

token/play money/counter is my guess...

back then the intrinsic value of coins generally was close to face... 0.8 grams of copper was almost nothing... a mid 19th century farthing weighed almost 3 grams; there were 4 farthings to the British penny...

[elheron-grande]

The token stating 1 Penny is only 10mm dia.   Heron agrees that this light weight item is probably not a coin.  If this token was minted in the 18th Century or early 19th Century it would not be close to the actual weight of a 1 penny coin.  An English Royal 1 Penny copper coin dated 1807 weighs 18.9 grams.  In addition, the genuine English 1 Penny is about 34mm in diameter (information per Numista). Heron actually has a few of these 1807 English Pennies but none as nice as the one now depicted on the Numista site).  The laurel wreath design is familiar to Heron.  A coin dated 1828 is on Heron's desk at this moment and the laurel wreath design is close.  A fairly common coin & token wreath design in the 18th and 19th centuries.  In addition to the possibility of this item being a 'gaming' item or a 'counter' it could be an educational item.  These were sometimes used to teach young folks how to recognize the denomination '1 Penny'.   

Well, whatever it is,  the token 1 Penny is an interesting item and conversation piece.  And it got some of us to think about such items. 

[dcsmzc]

19th c. spielmarke.  Found this on eBay's UK site.  Looks like theres a Half Penny with this same design as wel.

[elheron-grande]

Thank you very much for the information.  It is appreciated! Play money is interesting.