Owner Comments:
Anglesey DH #252c
Obverse: A cowled Druids head facing left within a thin wreath of oak leaves and acorns. 4 acorns at the tie, 20 acorns in the wreath, 10 to the left, 10 to the right, a W located on the truncation of the neck
Reverse: The company cypher PMCo with 1790 below ANGLESEY * MINES * PENNY .
Edge: Plain (rough)
Diesinker: William Wilson
Manufacturer: William Williams
Weight: 28.84g
Rarity: Very Rare
A specious token made for collectors. The Parys Mine Company was formed in 1778 and was jointly owned by the Rev. Edward Hughes of Amlwch and Greenfield Hall Holywell in Flintshire. Thomas Williams a lawyer at Llanidan and MP for Marlow and eventually Anglesey and John Dawes a London stockbroker. It was Thomas Williams (1737-1802) who was the prime mover of the mining enterprise and this whole token issue. His mining, smelting and manufacturing empire stretched the breadth of North Wales and beyond into Lancashire and Cornwall. The Parys Mine Company had large smelting works in South Wales and manufactured copper at Holywell.
The Parys Mine was about two miles from the small port of Amlwch. In 1768 rich deposits were found a few feet beneath the surface of the Mountain. Through his wife, the Rev Hughes owned this mountainside and soon two thousand men were being employed to mine between twenty and forty thousand tons of copper per annum! With the copper on hand these tokens were initially made to ease the situation of little small change amongst the miners however, soon these Druid halfpennies were being made to provide copper change throughout the country.
Atkins, Anglesea 118b
Heritage Sale, 18 September 2023