Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Penny
| Issuer | Barbados |
|---|---|
| Year | 1788 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Penny (1⁄240) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Crowned bust of a young figure facing left, wearing an ornate crown with feathered plumes and curled side elements. The portrait features tightly curled hair rendered in fine relief, with a bare truncation. The motto legend 'I SERVE' appears in the lower field beneath the bust, serving as the sole inscription on this face. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A large, centrally placed pineapple, the traditional symbol of Barbados, depicted in bold relief with a detailed crosshatch pattern on the fruit body and radiating leaf crown above. The circular legend 'BARBADOES PENNY' arcs around the upper periphery, while the date '1788' appears in the lower exergual area, flanked by decorative stops. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Barbados had no official crown mint coinage of its own in the eighteenth century — currency was a chronic problem across the British Caribbean, with planters and merchants routinely relying on cut and countermarked Spanish silver to make change. The 1788 Barbados penny was a private token issue, not a government coin, struck in Britain to fill that gap at the commercial initiative of local merchants. KM#Tn5 identifies it within the token series rather than the official coinage precisely for this reason.
The copper used was almost certainly sourced from the Swansea smelting trade, which supplied the bulk of token blanks to private issuers throughout this period.