(1694) Elephant Token
The enigmatic (1694) Elephant tokens are a fascinating area of numismatics. They were struck in London in the late 17th century and are named for the elephant on the obverse. Both the token’s thickness and reverse design vary. The most common variety today features a thick planchet paired with a reverse with the motto GOD PRESERVE LONDON around a shield containing a plain cross with a sword at the upper-left. Similar Elephant tokens exist for the British colonies in Carolina and New England, which both include the year 1694 in the reverse text. Respected numismatic sources, including A Guide Book of United States Coins, attribute the year of undated Elephant tokens as (1694), with the date in parentheses.
The genuine example of a (1694) “God Save London” Elephant token, thick planchet shown here is graded NGC Mint State-61 and pedigreed to the Donald G. Partrick Collection. It realized $3,000 at a Heritage Auctions sale in March 2021. Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC) recently received a purported example of this same variety.
NGC has graded more than 150 examples of Elephant tokens, including the colonial version, and not one has earned any color designation besides BN (Brown). The amount of red in the purported example is, itself, a red flag; it is much more vibrant than would be reasonably expected. In addition, these tokens generally show irregular rims, while this submission appears much too smoothly circular, as if it were struck in a collar.
Finally, the crude quality of the letters in the reverse legend are enough to send this phony pachyderm packing. Notice on the genuine example that the strokes in the word GOD grow skinny near the top and bottom of the letters, while they lack this elegance on the fake.
A close inspection of the denticles shows that in certain places (including above GOD), each denticle consists of a series of lines. This is evidence that the dies used to strike this token were created using a computer numerical control (CNC) machine.
Most Elephant tokens are worth several hundred dollars, with exceptional examples selling for five figures. If you aren’t sure yours is genuine, remember that NGC backs its determinations of authenticity and grade with the NGC Guarantee.
A version of this article appears in the December 2024 issue of The Numismatist (money.org).