Myddleton Tokens – 1796

Learn About the Three 1796 Myddleton Tokens

Philip Perry Price Myddleton was an Englishman, who had acquired a large tract of land bordering the Ohio River in Kentucky. He planned on turning this land into a productive farming community. He promised steady employment to all of the laborers who followed him to his settlement there. But his plans took a perilous journey as he was arrested in England for enticing undesirable people to emigrate to the United States. He was sentenced to a one-year jail term and a fine of 500 Pounds. But that one-year term lasted three years as he tried to raise the 500 Pounds to pay his fine. History does not tell us if Myddleton ever made it to America but he was still in England in 1806 defending himself in yet another lawsuit.

Before becoming a party to that lawsuit, Myddleton had contacted Matthew Boulton, of Birmingham, to strike some new coinage for his new farming community. His plan was to exchange his coinage for the coinage of his prospective farmers and for them to use his coinage while on his property – essentially setting up his own government within Kentucky.

Boulton stuck, on Myddleton’s behalf, some 53 silver pieces that were to be delivered to him in March of 1796. But fate intervened and Myddleton was arrested. Boulton saw the problems that Myddleton had encountered and wanted no part of it. He quietly distributed the silver pieces so that his association with Myddleton would be lost to history.   A very small quantity of the exact same design but struck in Copper were also created but they suffered the exact same fate. However, the design is quite artistic for the period.

The obverse displays Miss Liberty, holding the symbolic staff with Liberty Cap atop it, greeting an allegorical representation of Hope, at left, presenting two children to Liberty. The two child-like figures represent Freedom and Opportunity for this new colony. Behind Miss Liberty is a cornucopia representing the abundance of the new colony for all to see and enjoy. On the land rests a ship’s anchor symbolizing the long voyage from Europe to Kentucky and being anchored to the land in the farming community.

The reverse has an allegorical representation of Britannia, who is seated and her head is lowered and she is weeping. She is holding a spear in her right hand but it is upside down with the point on the ground. Scattered around Britannia is a Liberty Cap and the scales of Justice, symbolically messaging that Britain had lost a recent war, her people’s liberty and freedom.

This design was intended to bring confidence to the new community and to entice people to join in this endeavor. But fate intervened.

Since no records were kept no one knows how many copper specimens were struck or survived. Nor do we know why the Myddleton token’s obverse was muled to a token from the Copper Company of Upper Canada or how many of those were struck.  But perhaps two dozen examples of all three types of Myddleton Tokens do exist. The few that do show little to no wear as they truly did not circulate. The Mules may have been purposely struck as numismatic oddities or engraver’s samples of their artistic abilities.

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