BAHAMAS: George III, 1760-1820, AE penny, 1806, KM-1, plain edge variety, restrike by Taylor, surface hairlines, Proof. The economy of the Bahama Islands made extensive use of barter and relied on Spanish gold and silver coins for currency. Around the same time that some of the newly formed American states were coining coppers, the Bahamas legislature in 1789 passed an act regulating copper currency (Act 29 Geo. III. cap. 2). A proposal for copper tokens was put forward in 1802, but apparently no action was taken. On June 30, 1806 the Bahamas Assembly ordered £500 in copper pennies from Boulton's Soho Mint in Birmingham. The dies were cut by Conrad Heinrich Kuechler, modeling the obverse on the 1806 English halfpenny. The reverse commemorates the victory of Captain Wodes Rogers over pirates in 1717. The issue was rejected on the island. The various dies used to strike the coins produced at the 1st and 2nd Soho Mint were sold at auction, most of which ended up in the hands of a talented die sinker by the name of James T. Taylor in 1850. Taylor would go on to strike countless "restrikes" of some of the classic coins produced by the Soho mint as well as concoct a few other "coins" unique to his design.
Estimate: USD 400 - 500