1794 Franklin Press Token – And British Conder Token Series
The 1794 Franklin Press Token is part of the British Conder Token series. Conder Tokens are sometimes advertising pieces and other times depict historical events. While these Franklin Tokens likely never circulated in the American Colonies or were used in commerce, many made their way to America and were collected with US Colonial Coins as they bear the name of a great American patriot and Founding Father – Benjamin Franklin.
The printing press depicted on the token is believed to be the same press used by Benjamin Franklin while he served as a printer in London. The token depicts the hand=driven press and around the periphery is the Latin inscription, “SIC ORITUR DOCTRINA SURGETQUE LIBERTAS” which translated means – Thus learning begins and liberty arises. The reverse is simply text that states “PAYABLE AT THE FRANKLIN PRESS LONDON.”
Most of these Franklin Press tokens are found in high grade, which indicates that they were tokens instead of coinage and they never intended to circulate in the American Colonies or that they circulated very little, if at all.
A great number of Uncirculated examples are known to exist. It is very difficult to find almost any examples of this token below About Uncirculated condition. The edge is plain.
There are three known edge types, although only one is actually collectible.
In addition to the type with the plain edge, two other edge types are known:
- With “AN ASYLUM FOR THE OPPRESS’D OF ALL NATIONS” on the edge – UNIQUE.
- With a diagonally reeded edge – UNIQUE.
| Date | Type | Mintage | XF Value | Unc Value |
| 1794 | Franklin Press Token – Plain Edge | 500 – 1,000 | $400 | $1,000 |
| 1794 | Edge – AN ASYLUM FOR THE OPPRESS’D OF ALL NATIONS | 1 | Priceless | Priceless |
| 1794 | Edge – Diagonally Reeded Edge | 1 | Priceless | Priceless |
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