The Parys Mines, or Druid, Penny
A Mystery - quickly solved

Recently our Chairman was given sight of a coin by a Parishioner. She said that it had come to her from a member of the family who originally hailed from St. Helens. Interest was aroused immediately by the names of the places inscribed upon the edge of the coin, "Exchanged for cash at Anglesey, London, Liverpool", because of the extensive trade in copper and coal between Anglesey and St. Helens via Liverpool, using the Sankey Canal.

Closer inspection of the large, florid lettering on the back of the coin (left, above) enabled the letters to be deciphered - "P M Co" emerged, and the mystery was solved - the Paris Mines Company. The next thing was to discover more, and fortunately SCARS has its own coins and industrial tokens expert on its Executive - Richard Chester-Browne. He was quickly able to give the following information:

"During the period of shortage of small change in the 1780s-90s, many firms large and small issued their own pennies and (more often) halfpennies (and sometimes farthings) to alleviate the shortage. These are known as tokens, in particular the 18th Century series as others were issued in the preceding and following centuries. One of the first, and biggest, issuers was the Parys Mines Company, which started issuing pennies in 1787. Earlier dates can be found, but these were counterfeits. [As you might be able to see, the coin in question is dated 1784... so it is obviously one of the counterfeits.]

With the copper works in St Helens, these circulated in the local area, normally brought from Anglesey in sailing flats with the copper ore. The pennies were made of such a weight that the value of the copper plus the cost of production was just less than the face value, so that the issuers always made a profit. One may wonder why it was worth counterfeiting tokens, but in those days the penalties for forging regal coins were very much more, and the forger could make a greater profit by issuing underweight tokens.

During the 1790s, with the war with France, the price of copper increased and many of these pennies were melted down for scrap. They are, however, still quite common today. Value obviously depends on condition and rarity of the particular variety, but a good used one would typically fetch £5.

Richard Chester-Brown

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