by Jørgen Sømod (numis@vip.cybercity.dk)
Columbia Farthings is a name used by numismatists for some coppercoins or tokens, which on the obverse shows a left or right- wing portrait of a man. If the portrait is right-wing it also have above or below the legend COLUMBIA. The reverse shows a standing or sitting allegorical woman holding scales and a sword. An obverse-die with COLUMBIA above is known muled with the reverse- die to a jeton in occasion of the coronation of George IV 19th July 1821.
The socalled Columbia Farthings looks immediate like official English farthings from George IV and William IV and because of the the known mule, dated 1821 it is stated, that they are struck in Birmingham.
As far as known, they are cataloged first time in Josef Neumann, Bescreibung der bekanntesten Kupfermünzen, Band 3, Prag 1863, where they are traced to the Southamerican country Columbia. Same tracing is found for the pieces, which were in the Jules Fonrobert collection, sold in Berlin 1878.
Later times numismatists agree that they are not from the Southamerican country, because they never are found there. It was suggested they were sent into circulation in areas in present Canada or U.S.A., but nobody could make any proof of it. Because of that Columbia Farthings have for a long time been one of the big mysteries in the numismatics.
The question about them were brought on the internet mailinglist coins@uni.edu.
It was then shown, that Columbia Farthings were unknown to most American
collectors and dealers and that they on the common American coinmarket
are scarce. As an answer to the questions on coins@uni.edu Mr. John M.
Kleeberg, ANS told: The American Numismatic Society has 28 Columbia farthings
in its collection.
Those with a provenance come from three sources:
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Columbia farthings were collected in the belief that they were part of the US "colonial series." You should find them if you look through old Woodward, Frossard, or Steigerwalt catalogues. But that does not mean that they ever circulated here, because the dealers of the time often bought bulk lots in European auctions (we know that many US dealers were active buyers at the LeGras sale in Paris and at the Fonrobert sale in Berlin) or imported privately acquired bulk lots just to have material to sell to collectors.
Columbia farthings are apparently absent from the most important Canadian hoard of coppers (12,000 coins, of which McLachlan went through 5,000): the Bank of Montreal hoard deposited in 1837 - see R. W. McLachlan, "A Hoard of Canadian Coppers" in: The Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal (July 1889) pp. 27-34. Columbia farthings also appear to be absent from the Aaron White accumulation (nearly 100,000 copper coins) of coppers of the 1860s, which was assembled in Connecticut: Walter Breen, "Survey of American Coin Hoards," The Numismatist, October 1952, pp. 1007- 1010.
Further Mr. Andrew in United Kingdom could tell: Yes, the Columbia 'Farthings' are found in dealers' miscellaneous boxes. I have four different varieties but know of another collector who has about nine. He also has a total of some 700+ of them so he has quite a lot of duplicates! They are quite common but I think interest in them is limited. If, however, we knew where and where they were used then it would be a different matter. Rather than noting where dealers have them it would be more interesting to find where metal detector user have dug them up. I believe they were used as currency of some sore, somewhere in the world. There are too many of them around and they often show signs of circulation for this not to be the case.
It can now be concluded, that Columbia Farthings alone were manufactured in Britain and sent into circulation in England. The former dating, round 1830, is undoubtly correct. The question is now: Why were they made? As an answer should be mentioned, that for years it was in Britain a tradition, that the major part of minor currency was private tokens of which many were without a name of issuer, why these tokenissuers just by issuing maked their profit. An Act of Parliament declared them illegal 1817, except for tokens of the Birmingham Workhouse and Sheffield Overseers of the Poor, which were current until 1820 and 1823 respectively. The tokenissuers got then their business destroyed. By using the word COLUMBIA, it may be assumed the issuers tried to let people believe that their illegal tokens instead were money from an area in North or Southamerica. Because many areas had the name Columbia, it would be difficult or rather impossible to discover the swindle.
Copyright © Jørgen Sømod 1996Brought to you by Association des Numismates Francophones du Canada