Moneta
Registered: August 2005
Location: Arizona USA
Posts: 2,365
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These are Hard Times tokens that are a bit of a jumble. They're listed as a USA Hard Times token (Low #48; HT-204) but I believe they're struck for use in Canada as a BAS-CANADA token of Quebec. They were struck in Belleville, New Jersey by the "Belleville Boys" who are also credited with other HHT, particularly the ACS token for Liberia and a series of Brazilain counterfeits, etc. This crude piece reflects the quality of product of Belleville in 1837. Since I believe the ACS tokens of 'Liberia' (struck for fund raising in the USA) were actually struck by the US Mint in Philadelphia, this coin helps prove the point that they were incapable of striking the fine pieces of Liberia in 1833. Without proof, I still believe that, if they did strike Liberian tokens it was as counterfeits. DUSEAMAN BUTCHER is a botched attempt at creating a legend that was supposed to read D.U. SEAMAN - BUTCHER; perhaps a butcher in New York City.
This is often categorized as a hard times token. Tobias D. Seaman ordered these as a business card, his main income was as a hotelier and as a butcher. After he rejected them the U was added to the die to create the name DUSEAMAN, the mule is the same weight as an American large cent.
A sou was a halfpenny in French Canada (Quebec Province). Two sous (plural) made a penny. But a penny was not what we understand by a cent. Until 1867, Canada was a colony of Great Britain and it used the English monetary system in which a pound sterling was the principal
monetary unit. Twenty shillings made a pound and twelve pence or pennies a shilling. Therefore, 240 pennies or 480 halfpennies equaled one pound sterling. [C. Faulkner]
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