Sommer Is Shilling W-15440 Nickel Dickeson Copy

Coin Details

Description

A nickel-composition copy of the Sommer Islands (Bermuda) Shilling cataloged as W-15440 in the Whitman reference, produced by Dr. Montroville Wilson Dickeson in the mid-19th century. Dickeson (1810-1882), a Philadelphia physician and avid numismatist, created reproductions of famous colonial coins that were already virtually impossible to acquire in his era. The original Sommer Islands coinage dates to approximately 1616 and was produced for the Bermuda settlement of the Virginia Company. The distinctive designs feature a wild hog on the obverse, referencing the feral swine that populated the islands and gave them an alternative name ("Hogge Money"), and a three-masted ship on the reverse representing the vessels that sustained the colony. Dickeson's nickel copies reproduce these iconic designs with reasonable fidelity, though the pure nickel composition creates a harder, more silvery piece than the soft copper of the originals. Nickel was a relatively modern material in Dickeson's era, only becoming widely available for coinage purposes in the 1850s, which helps date the production of these copies. Nickel Dickeson copies of Sommer Islands shillings cataloged under W-15440 are among the scarcer compositions in the series. They represent both the numismatic interests of their maker and the technological capabilities of mid-19th-century Philadelphia metalworking, where Dickeson had access to a variety of alloys through his connections in the scientific and collecting communities.

Rarity Notes

Rare. Nickel composition is among the scarcer Dickeson copy variants. Few examples appear at auction.

Cross References

W-15440; Dickeson Copy series; Original: Sommer Islands Shilling, circa 1616