A variety of assumptions and undocumented assertions about the Carolina Elephant token have circulated over the years in some historical texts. What is known about the copper piece is that it was not issued as a merchant token in England; it had no assigned value, its function was that of a publicity device to advertise Carolina and to lure investment to this portion of the so-called "New World." Yet, one repeated assertion made in narratives about the token is that due to the ongoing shortage of specie in the North American colonies, when some of the tokens found their way to this side of the Atlantic, they were adopted as a medium of exchange, accepted as halfpennies, by coin-poor settlers. This assertion, however, is not supported by any specific citations in period records.

Whatever the Carolina token's actual use beyond its promotional applications, its obverse design certainly prompts further inquiry. An elephant appears to be an odd choice and an incongruous symbol to represent a colonial territory where no such animal roamed. 'While many numismatic symbols and designs are inspired by national or personal concepts of an ideal, the Carolina proprietors' selection of an elephant's image appears to have been based solely on pragmatic considerations. There were likely two reasons this pachadermic obverse was employed by them: first, for its simple yet exotic, eye-catching appeal and, secondly, for sheer economy. Relating to the latter, one other unsupported assertion made about the Carolina token is that its elephant design was struck originally for tokens of the Royal African Company. The association of an elephant with that enterprise is understandable and would, "continentally" speaking, seem logical. Still, this assertion remains pure conjecture, for there is no documentation to support it.

Also, given the extensive holdings and slave-trading network of the Royal African Company, the fact that not a single specimen of such a token has surfaced in Europe, America, or Africa in well over three centuries further undercuts the credibility that the die was ever produced for that large company.

Despite the lack of firm evidence for determining the elephant design's first use, what is certain with specimens surviving is that around the same period the Carolina tokens were struck, two other tokens with the same obverse were issued by authorities affiliated with the City of London and with investors linked to America's New England colonies. The recurrent use of this obverse design suggests that it was an image that was readily available and was among the Tower Mint's general inventory of dies. It is therefore probable that the lords proprietors opted to reuse an existing design at the mint. This decision that would have saved them the expense of fashioning a new die, one unique to Carolina.

Currently, the NCC has no genuine specimen of the 1694 Carolina Elephant token. There are, however, three reproductions of it in the department's 10,000-piece numismatic collection, along with one smoothly worn copper slug that is reportedly the remnant of an original token. Two of these three reproductions are easy-to-detect copies struck many years ago by Capitol Medals, Inc., in High Point. The other one, though, which was donated recently by RCC member Bryan Chappell, is an extremely high quality reproduction, one so well crafted that it could pass and apparently does pass in some numismatic circles as authentic. This fine reproduction even possesses the subtle "O-over-E" correction to "PROPRIETERS," a misspelling made in the initial strikes of the Carolina Elephant token in 1694.

When Bryan Chappell first donated his reproduction to the NCC, we speculated that it might be an 1869 product of John Adams Bolen, an accomplished maker of facsimiles who worked in Springfield, Massachusetts. On closer inspection, a cluster of parallel lines at 5:00 and other imperfections in the token's field prove to be identical to those found on several Carolina Elephant electrotypes held by the Smithsonian Institution. These details and others found on Chappell's gift including faint seam lines along its edge confirm it to be an electrotype. This confirmation immediately excluded Bolen from our list of possible makers, since the Springfield artisan struck all of his Elephant Token copies and did not produce electrotypes. The creator of NCC's recent acquisition remains unknown.

Another example of a Carolina Elephant electrotype can be found today in Indiana, in the Robert H. Gore Collection at the University of Notre Dame Library. The specimen at Notre Dame was identified and presented as genuine until May 2001, when curators there received information from the NCC about Chappell's donation. The token at Notre Dame carries, among other things, identical parallel markings at 5:00, the same "die" orientation, diameter, and the same shallow, nearly obliterated "S" in the word "PRESERVE." After obtaining this information, curators at Notre Dame re-examined their token, agreed with our findings, and reclassified their piece as a reproduction, as yet another electrotype.

Bryan Chappell's high-quality reproduction has, indeed, been a most welcome addition to the NCC's holdings. As demonstrated in this case, reproductions, especially ones as beautifully rendered as Chappell's electrotype, can be very useful and valuable references for comparing and analyzing the diagnostics of specimens whose authenticity is suspect.

To view the Carolina Elephant electrotype at the University of Notre Dame Library, readers should access the website for the Robert H. Gore, Jr., Numismatic Collection at
www.coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinText/ElephantTokens.html.

For more information about the North Carolina Collection and its holdings, call 919-962-1172 or visit its website at www.lib.unc.edu/ncc/index.html.

References:

Doty, Dr. Richard K, curator of numismatics, Smithsonian Institution; interviewed by Neil Fulghum at the North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, May 5, 2001.

Geiger, Rusty, "Elephant tokens one legacy of N.C. Colony," Coin World [newspaper], volume 28, issue 1402, February 25, 1987, p. 38.

Johnson, Edwin L. J. A. Bolen's Medals, Cards and Fac-Similes (Springfield, Massachusetts: Numismatic Printing and Binding Company, 1882), pp. 12-13.

Jordan, Louis. "The Elephant Tokens, 1694: Introduction" website of the Department of Special Collections, Hesburgh Library, University of Notre Dame Library
(www.coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/ElephantTokens.intro.html).