Owner Comments:
The North American Token, pictured above, is widely believed to have been struck in Ireland, sometime between 1810 and 1825. The dies and striking have been attributed to William Mossop, Jr. of Dublin,
Ireland. Mossop engraved several Condor style tokens, dated 1792, advertising Camac, Kyan, & Camac, that featured very similar punches and depictions of seated Hibernia with its adjacent harp.
The date 1781 appears at the bottom of the obverse of the North American Token. This date long preceded the date of production of the token. The token may have been backdated to evade Canadian importation laws. These pieces circulated extensively in present day Canada, and resemble other Canadian tokens of the period. Alternatively, the 1781 date may have commemorated the American defeat of the British at Yorktown.
The North American Tokens were made in both copper and the heavier brass, and are rarely found in high grades. They were purposely weakly struck in low relief, from worn or damaged dies, and without a collar, to artificially simulate wear. It was hoped that by doing so, they would be more readily accepted by the public.
Since these tokens circulated in Canada, but had no known connection to the United States, one might ask why they have been collected as part of the colonial series? Perhaps the reference to "North America Token" coupled with the year 1781 make them fair game for colonial collectors. It has been suggested that some New York and Philadelphia merchants sought their importation to fill the void in small change caused by the large cent planchet shortages traced to the War of 1812.