Owner Comments:
In his groundbreaking 1875 treatise, the renowned colonial scholar, Sylvester S. Crosby, paid the Myddelton Token shown above the ultimate compliment in saying: "In beauty of design and execution, the tokens are unsurpassed by any piece issued for American circulation".
Philip Parry Price Myddelton nee Philip Parry Price, was the motivating force behind the creation of these extraordinary pieces. He was an ambitious English entrepreneur and physician, who traveled to America to acquire a large tract of land along the Ohio River in northern Kentucky for the purpose of establishing a settlement there. Upon returning to Europe, he extensively advertised his project, and thereby succeeded in attracting at least 1,200 skilled tradesmen willing to abandon England in search of a better life.
Myddelton realized that a circulating coinage would be essential to the success of his colony, and to that end, he retained the services of Matthew Boulton's Soho Mint in Birmingham, England to produce tokens. Although the dies were fashioned by an eminently talented engraver, Conrad Kuchler, Myddelton himself provided detailed specifications of all design elements he wanted incorporated into the final product.
The token was to feature scenes steeped in symbolism: The obverse contains an allegorical figure of Hope (representing Britain) to the viewers left, sending her two children (emigrants Peace and Plenty) to America, symbolized by the welcoming goddess Liberty, bearing a Phrygian liberty cap on a pole. Adjacent to Liberty is a wreathed sapling, symbolic of growth, and a cornucopia, representative of the rich bounty of America. The periphery contains the language "British Settlement Kentucky", with the date 1796 at the bottom.
The token's reverse depicts a dejected effigy of Britannia, after her humiliating defeat in the Revolutionary War. Her head is downcast, her spear is inverted, and she is slumped on her shield. At her feet, in ruin, are imagery of liberty, i.e. a liberty cap, broken scales of justice and fasces, all brought about by Britain's past tyrannies.
In the April 2021 Heritage Auction catalogue of the Donald G. Partrick Collection, (of which the above pictured token was a part), it is suggested that British authorities imprisoned Myddelton for sedition, based upon the imagery portrayed in the tokens he personally designed and requisitioned. Of equal gravity however, just before his departure to America to fulfill his dreams, Myddelton was arrested, indicted, and convicted for "enticing artificers to emigrate" under the provisions of a 1783 British law aimed at thwarting those who sought to entice skilled English craftsmen and artistics workers to move abroad. The one year sentence originally handed down, and to be served at the Newgate Prison, was extended for an additional two and a half years, when Myddelton was unable to pay a 500 pound fine simultaneously imposed. This substantial delay sounded the death knell for his ill-fated plans for colonization.
The Myddelton tokens were proof emissions, and have been additionally collected as part of the Conder series.
A total of 11 tokens were produced in copper. All were given a bronze finish to enhance their artistry. 53 pieces were fashioned in silver, but at least 46 of them were returned to the manufacturer, as not conforming to Myddelton's instructions that all tokens were to be used solely as a circulating medium. An even smaller number of examples, using the same obverse, were muled with an unrelated reverse pertaining to the Copper Company Of Upper Canada, and denominated a One Half Penny.