366

Canadian Countermark

Currency:CAD Category:Coins & Paper Money / World Coins - Canada Start Price:200.00 CAD Estimated At:400.00 - 500.00 CAD
Canadian Countermark
SOLD
240.00CAD+ buyer's premium
This item SOLD at 2016 Jul 20 @ 22:16UTC-4 : AST/EDT


Buyer’s Premiums will be added on all items as per the Terms & Conditions of the sale. Invoices will be emailed out following the RCNA Convention. Visit gbellauctions.com to view a digital copy of the catalogue for this sale.
Canadian Countermark - PAQUETTE & CIE (curved) / a beaver / MONTREAL / M’F’RS on what appears to be the obv. of George III cartwheel penny, 1797 (M.I. 729, Brunk P-122). Ex:Lepczyk, April, 1983, lot 783.

The piece is of much later date than its undertype would suggest. The two or three others I’ve seen are also countermarked over cartwheel pennies. The name Paquette is not to be found in Montreal directories till about 1860. Lovell’s Montreal directory, for 1898-99, published by John Lovell & Son, has an entry for Paquette & Co. who advertise their “Crown Liquid Blue”, a laundry agent. As cartwheel pennies never had a great circulation in Canada, the company may have considered a promotion for its commencement in business by ordering up worn and discarded cartwheels, already one hundred years old. Lyman Low’s Comstock Sale, Part III, November 25, 1903, lot 539, offered a specimen with the comment: I judge this to be an early card. Another specimen appeared in his sale of July 21, 1904, where he added I recall only one specimen previously offered; no doubt this was the same piece offered a few months earlier. If only Low knew the Paquette countermark was a mere six years of age when he published that comment! (Marked Impressions).

Note: this lot is part of The Richard Cooper Collection.