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bhmtokens's Last 20 Posts
| Heaton/Birmingham Mint Advertising, Specimen And Pattern Pieces
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bhmtokens
New Member
Canada
22 Posts |
 Posted 02/24/2025 6:37 pm
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The Birmingham Mint had their fingers in the US market for a brief period. In 1988 they purchased the Green Duck Corporation and in 1993 they purchased Casino Tokens Inc. USA.
Casino Tokens Inc was a short lived venture and was closed in 1999 due to some structured changes in the US Casino token market. Green Duck ceased doing business around the same time the Birmingham Mint closed its doors in 2003.
Here are some advertising casino chips. I believe they were made in the 1998 or 1999 as this coincides with the the name change from IMI Birmingham Mint back to The Birmingham Mint in 1998. Green Duck also made casino tokens, but I don't believe they would of used 'Birmingham Mint' on any advertising casino tokens.
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| | Forum: United Kingdom (Great Britain) Coins |
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| Test Tokens - 1965 Series
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bhmtokens
New Member
Canada
22 Posts |
Posted 02/21/2025 4:34 pm
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I have always loved this series of test tokens. I think subject matter spoke to me, especially the 50 Tokens pieces. I have been fortunate to acquire a couple of these pieces over the years. Does anybody else have any they are willing to show?
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| | Forum: Canadian Coins and Colonial Tokens |
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| Heaton/Birmingham Mint Advertising, Specimen And Pattern Pieces
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bhmtokens
New Member
Canada
22 Posts |
Posted 02/18/2025 12:34 pm
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The Birmingham Mint made a number of modern advertising and trial pieces. Unfortunately, much of the background information on these pieces was lost when the mint closed in 2003.
This next piece included a insert with background information.
"This commemorative medal was manufactured through IMI's fully integrated process from casting to striking in their High Security Alloy - HS2. This alloy has proved to be very acceptable because it has a pleasing white/yellow colour, it has excellent coining characteristics and it is difficult to counterfeit. - XVII Mint Directors Conference, Helsinki, Finland, June 5-9, 1994"
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| | Forum: United Kingdom (Great Britain) Coins |
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| Heaton/Birmingham Mint Advertising, Specimen And Pattern Pieces
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bhmtokens
New Member
Canada
22 Posts |
Posted 02/17/2025 11:02 am
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The Birmingham Mint provided coins to almost 100 different countries and territories. From Africa to Central America, Europe to Asia they made millions of coins for the world economy.
According to 'A Numismatic History of the Birmingham Mint', in 1887 and 1888, while still known as Ralph Heaton & Sons, they helped build the first modern mint in China. The Canton Mint had over 90 presses and was the largest mint at the time. Here are some examples of test and advertising tokens directly related to their business with the Chinese government.
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| | Forum: United Kingdom (Great Britain) Coins |
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| Heaton/Birmingham Mint Advertising, Specimen And Pattern Pieces
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bhmtokens
New Member
Canada
22 Posts |
Posted 02/16/2025 12:44 pm
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The Taylor and Challen pieces are very popular and some of the rarer pieces can command a price in excess of $5000.
The Birmingham Mint piece is a relatively common piece. You can find it made of cupro nickel or pure nickel. The pure nickel one is magnetic. It is usually found with a smooth edge, around 25mm in diameter and a medal alignment.
Even then there are rare strikes of that piece. Any metal outside of a white metal is extremely rare. You can also find the odd one with a reeded edge and and rarer yet one minted with a coinage alignment. The weight can vary quite a bit on these pieces. The heavier/thicker cupro nickel pieces can be found to have some edge lettering on them.
Here is one that has all 3 rare characteristics. It is copper with a reeded edge and is of coinage alignment.
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| | Forum: United Kingdom (Great Britain) Coins |
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| Heaton/Birmingham Mint Advertising, Specimen And Pattern Pieces
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bhmtokens
New Member
Canada
22 Posts |
Posted 02/14/2025 4:34 pm
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I have a pretty narrow focus on my numismatic collection. It is focused on the Heaton/Birmingham Mint advertising, specimen and pattern pieces. I do have a couple of web sites dedicated to this. It is a catalogue of the different pieces I have located or seen. I had a Facebook page that provided more insight. Unfortunately it was hacked and no help from Meta to get it back.
I will be posting information on this site. Thank you to the site operators and moderators for this opportunity to reach more numismatists.
My first posting on this subject will be the piece that got me hooked on this line of numismatics.
This advertising piece can be found in Aluminum, White Metal and Bronze. They are around 25mm in diameter. White and bronze have a plain edge and the aluminum has a reeded edge. All have a medal axis. They were made in the mid 1880's when Ralph Heaton and Sons changed to a limited company 'The Mint, Birmingham Limited'.
This then led me to the only book that touched on the subject and that was 'A Numismatic History of the Birmingham Mint' by James O. Sweeny. The book concentrates mostly on the coins issued by the mint for countries around the world. There is a small section about advertising tokens with only a few pieces listed. Over the past 15 years I have been fortunate to catalogue over 180 pieces.
I hope others will enjoy this thread and will post anything related to the topic.
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| | Forum: United Kingdom (Great Britain) Coins |
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| Specimen Euros - Birmingham Mint
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bhmtokens
New Member
Canada
22 Posts |
Posted 02/13/2025 5:48 pm
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| The 1794 is part of the Birmingham Mint logo. 1794 is when the Soho Mint started. Ralph Heaton bought the mint in 1851 and became Heaton & Son, then different names until they went bankrupt in 2003 as The Birmingham Mint. At the time they claimed to be the oldest independent mint and celebrated 200 years in 1994. 1794 was a very important part of their logo and identity. |
| | Forum: United Kingdom (Great Britain) Coins |
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| Specimen Euros - Birmingham Mint
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bhmtokens
New Member
Canada
22 Posts |
Posted 02/13/2025 4:21 pm
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I am posting this under United Kingdom Coins as they were minted in the UK.
The Birmingham Mint was involved, along with other European mints and blank manufacturers, in defining the technical specifications for the blanks used for the new Euro coins. The original specifications were adopted in May, 1998. After consultation with some stakeholders, the final technical specifications were adopted in February 1999. The Birmingham Mint Specimen Euro coins were minted on blanks from the original specifications of 1998.
The Birmingham Mint was vying to get contracts to supply blanks to the mints of Europe. They wanted to show potential customers the quality of their blanks. Specimen pieces were minted on actual Euro blanks the Birmingham Mint produced. There were 65 presentation sets made and distributed to mint masters throughout Europe. There were also around 10 'pouch' sets that Birmingham Mint employees carried with them as salesman's samples.
The European Commissioner who oversaw the quality of the Euro, saw these specimen pieces and deemed them to be counterfeit because they were the exact size, weight and metal composition of proposed new Euro coins. He ordered them to be destroyed.
Most of the sets were re-obtained by the Birmingham Mint and destroyed. There were a few sets unaccounted for and remain in private hands. It is estimated that less than 10 full presentation sets and a few 'pouch' sets still remain. Individual ones can be found that have been removed from the set.
The Birmingham Mint never officially minted Euro coins. They did however strike some 2 Euro coins for the Royal Dutch Mint in secret. The Birmingham Mint was already producing the blanks for the RDM but the RDM was struggling in striking the 2 Euro coin.
I received this information from Mr.Kevin Binnion who was the Engineering Manager of The Birmingham Mint, and oversaw the production of the Euro blanks and the collection and destruction of the 'counterfeit' specimens. |
| | Forum: United Kingdom (Great Britain) Coins |
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| Heaton Coffee Tokens - Late 1800's
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bhmtokens
New Member
Canada
22 Posts |
Posted 02/12/2025 2:58 pm
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| There are many coffee/tavern tokens with a 1 on them not issued by Heaton. I don't have a reference book specific to coffee/tavern or pub check tokens to give you a correct answer. In my years or collecting Heaton/Birmingham items, I haven't found any others with the Heaton name on them other than the ones I have posted. If anybody has different information, please share. |
| | Forum: Tokens, Medals, Challenge Coins, and other Exonumia |
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