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 Replies: 6 / Views: 1,009 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1077 Posts |
 Shown above is my silver shilling token from the Isle of Man, issued by the Douglas Bank in 1811 to serve as "necessity coinage" during the last decade of King George III's reign, when the Crown failed or neglected to provide the citizenry with enough "small change" to sustain everyday commerce. Pennies and halfpennies were issued locally as well, not only by the Douglas Bank, but also by a handful of other banks and merchants in Douglas and Castletown.
Circulating at the same time was this rare and unusual Isle of Man artifact that I was able to add my collection earlier this year. It's been curated and published by the Manx Museum and National Trust as a "Shilling — copper test piece; Rev. S. Ash and incuse A."
Both tokens are 22mm in diameter, which is within a millimeter of the contemporary farthings, whether Regal issues or tokens. The copper pieces are known with and without the "A" countermark.
The problem: No one can identify "S. Ash." I've been collecting the Regency Period tokens for over 35 years now and have yet to find anything in "the literature" that makes any attribution possible.
Aside from auction listings, I've seen no mention of this piece in print or online since 1999, when Paul Withers repeated Major Fred Pridmore's speculation that it may have circulated as a farthing because of its size and copper content.
Please leave a comment if you have any more recent information on the identity of the elusive S. Ash. (Journal articles, anyone?) Also, should you happen to have a copy of Mike Southall's out-of-print book, Coins of the Isle of Man, please share any coverage he may have given to this token. I haven't been able to find a copy here in the States...maybe one of our UK forum members has it on the shelf? (I recently bought a used McCammon on ebay: not a word.)
Many thanks in advance to all my fellow exonumismaniacs!
Tom
 "If everything seems to be under control, you're just not going fast enough."
--- Mario Andretti
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
94367 Posts |
I know little about this, but most interesting.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
945 Posts |
The only book specifically covering Manx tokens that I have is the Pobjoy one from 1978 by James A Mackay. It lists both the coins you have above, but sadly gives no further info on "S ASH". The values it suggests for 1978 seem extremely high!
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Bedrock of the Community
United Kingdom
18561 Posts |
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Moderator
 United States
194692 Posts |
Very interesting!  |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1077 Posts |
Thank you all for your comments...I'll probably have to scour the property deeds and parish records of every little town on the Isle of Man before I can make any further progress on this research topic.
Hadn't seen the Pobjoy book, Paddy & Rob -- thanks for the input on that. I did find it for sale a while back but decided against buying it because I figured if Pobjoy was publishing it the coverage would be limited to their modern NCLT issues...
Quote:
PaddyB wrote: The values it suggests for 1978 seem extremely high!
Paddy, you should see the 2024 values! Also, check out my signature below...
"If everything seems to be under control, you're just not going fast enough."
--- Mario Andretti
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
945 Posts |
I baulk at paying that sort of money for a Saxon silver penny, let alone a 19th century token!
I hope you stuck to your motto and got them cheap.
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Replies: 6 / Views: 1,009 |
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Posted 09/22/2024 5:54 pm
