Talbot, Allum & Lee Tokens

About This Coin

Produced at Matthew Boulton's celebrated Soho Mint in Birmingham, England, the Talbot, Allum & Lee tokens represent some of the finest privately issued copper pieces to circulate in early American commerce. The firm of Talbot, Allum & Lee was a New York City importing house that commissioned these copper cents in 1794-1795, weighing 10.5 grams with a 29 mm diameter, to advertise their business while simultaneously addressing the chronic shortage of small change in the young republic. The obverse features a standing figure of Liberty and the reverse displays a sailing ship, both executed with the technical precision for which Boulton's Soho Mint was renowned worldwide. These tokens circulated widely in New York and surrounding areas, accepted at face value as one cent despite their private origin, and their quality of manufacture exceeded that of many contemporary official issues. The Soho Mint's steam-powered coining presses produced pieces of remarkable uniformity compared to the hand-operated screw presses used at many colonial-era minting facilities. Talbot, Allum & Lee tokens occupy a significant position in the post-1776 private and regional issues series because they document the intersection of commercial advertising, monetary necessity, and industrial-quality manufacturing that characterized the best privately issued American tokens of the 1790s, before the Philadelphia Mint achieved sufficient production capacity to supply the nation's coinage needs.