Lot 187 - Barbados.Pineapple CU Penny, narrow date. 1788.

Barbados.Pineapple CU Penny, narrow date. 1788. I. SERVE . Slaves head left wearing head feathers / BARBADOES . PENNY . date . Pineapple centre. Narrow date variety. KM Tn8. 13.38g, 32.00mm, 12h.NGC Graded XF 45 Brown. (8465177-003). A nice example of this popular slavery token. Sir Philip Gibbs, owner of the Gibbs plantation, arranged for one and a half hundredweight of these pieces to be struck. The first dies were engraved by J. Milton of the Royal Mint and Hocking, p. 314, believes the pieces were struck at the the Royal Mint. It would seem that they were not an official product of the Royal Mint but a private parcel struck by one of the engravers. This example is from a second circulation issue with dies and manufacture thought to be by J.G. Hancock, Birmingham. The second issue has a characteristic weakness on the second 'A' of BARBADOES. Gibbs tokens are often catalogued as 'Token Coinage' as they achieved widespread circulation throughout Barbados.