A Few Of My Favourites From My Collection - Hope You Like Them

Lovely pieces. Keep 'em coming.

The first piece is a Bath halfpenny 1794.

William Gye was a bookseller, printer and stationer at 13 Market Place, Bath. He regularly visited the debtors in Ilchester prison. It was the custom at that time to imprison people for small debts, often removing completely any chance of repaying the debt. This meant some debtors could be there for life. Gye collected donations from customers to repay some of these debts and thereby free the persons involved.

The obverse is described as Benevolence directing her messenger to "go forth" with a key to open a prison. A basket hangs by the window, referring to the custom where baskets were hung on walls outside a prison appealing to charity for prisoners from passers-by.

The reverse is the arms of the City of Bath. The bottom part of the shield is a wall representing the city wall. Above the wall are the waters of the mineral springs for which Bath is famous, and the river Avon. Central is the sword of St Paul, one of the abbey patrons. The supporters ( animals ) of the arms are standing on acorns, which refer to Bladud, or Blaiddyd, legendary king who supposedly founded the city of Bath. The story is he went to Athens to study, but caught leprosy. On returning to what is now England he worked as a swineherd. His pigs found muddy springs which healed Bladud of leprosy, so he founded Bath where this all happened. His son was Leir, the King Lear of Shakespeare.

8cwt of these tokens were struck, making a mintage I estimate at 40,000. Diesinker Wyon. Manufacturer Lutwyche. Listed by Bell as "scarce". Slight variants, a mule and counterfeits exist.

Re the second piece - does it have an edge inscription?

The second piece refers to the naval Battle of Cape St Vincent won by John Jervis, who was awarded the title of Earl of St Vincent for his victory.

The image is of Jervis seated, being crowned by King Neptune.

There are various edge inscriptions recorded. Yours refers to Thomas Sharp, a mercer. 5cwt of tokens were struck with this edging ( 25,000 ) . Diesinker Wyon, manufacturer Kempson. Listed as "common" by Bell in 1963 but scarce/rare by Galata in 2010.

Other edge inscriptions I have listed are

PAYABLE AT S SALMONS I DOURTNEY & F FROST PORTSEA

PAYABLE BY HORTON AND COMPANY

and a repeat of the first but with COURTNEY instead of DOURTNEY.

John Courtney, Edward Frost and Samuel Salmon were three tavern keepers in the Portsea area of The George, The Ship Anson and The Brown Bear. The reference to "F FROST" above is as recorded. It is known that these three joined together to have tokens made to ease trading, both of this type and one with a warship over a fish on one side and George and the Dragon on the other, makking a play on their names or the names of the taverns. Interestingly Thomas Sharp is also recorded as having an edge inscription on this token also.

The only reference I found to HORTON was in the Staffordshire area.

I suggest that your token was a stock design which people could order with their own edging. As Portsmouth had a naval dockyard the design would have been well received.

The third piece is a Coventry halfpenny.

The female on horseback is Lady Godiva. The elephant carrying a small castle is from the arms of Coventry. It is poorly proportioned, suggesting to me that the artist was working from descriptions rather than personal knowledge. He/she also appears to be unsure of the differences between African and Indian elephants.

This token was struck dated from 1792 to 1795, with various edge inscriptions. I could only find fragmentary information about this, and would be interested to know what inscription yours has. Mention is made of a Robert Reynolds & co, who was a ribbon weaver. Again this appears to be a stock design that individual traders could personalise with their own edge inscriptions.

Item 5:

Spalding halfpenny 1794
diesinker Wyon, manufacturer Kempson, 10cwt struck ( approx 50,000 ). Listed by Bell as common.

The cypher in the shield is "TJ" for Thomas Jennings, an ironmonger and stationer, with business in Spalding and Holbeach.

There are various edges recorded.
PAYABLE AT T JENNINGS SPALDING & HOLBEACH
is the major one.

There is an error recorded where I JORDANS replaces T JENNINGS. According to Bell, this was caused by Wyon getting confused with another token he was working on at the same time.

Galatea lists various other edges, including CURRENT EVERYWHERE. This intrigues me, because generic tokens like this can be counterfeits produced by an unscrupulous person, when the original is widely accepted. It would be interesting to see one and hear from anyone with detailed knowledge.

Item 7:

DH Middlesex 1016, 1794 halfpenny. Various edge inscriptions and also engrailed or milled.

Full of political symbolism is this one!

"FRA-NCE" is divided. Feet trample on honour, religion is in pieces, the throne turned upside down and glory defaced ( note hatching across word ), the whole surrounded by fire and murder ( daggers ). On the other side is Britain surrounded by a wall of oak leaves, referring to the wooden walls of the Royal Navy.

Diesinker Mainwaring, manufacturer probably the same.

Bell states there are at least 13 edge inscriptions, but lists none. DH gives one and Galata list 3 plus 3 edge varieties. What is yours?

What are the other varieties that you have listed? I know you said you only have a few, but would be interested to find out the varieties that are known

Item 8:

Sherborne halfpenny 1793, issued by the Sherborne and Dorsetshire bank. Dalton & Hamer Dorset 7. Diesinker and manufacturer Westwood,
listed by Bell as "scarce". It is one of three linked tokens suggesting to be from that bank. The others of different designs
are DH8 and DH9.

The Sherborne and Dorsetshire bank was established around 1740 ( according to RBS website ) or 1750 in Long Street, Sherborne.
I found this appearing in some old references as "Sherbourne". It is from the Anglo-Saxon "scir burne", meaning "clear stream". The building still exists and has a plaque on the front.

The bank was established by Simon Pretor, a grocer. The "Universal British Directory", lists the company as "Pretor, Pew and Whitby", which is the form followed by Bell in his work. This work was a contemporary listing of companies in England and Wales, produced in parts in the early 1790's. The RBS website lists the bank as "Pretor, Pew, Whitty and Pretor" in 1792, and as "Pretor Pew and Whitty" in 1797. According to RBS again it became "Pew Whitty and Gill" in 1812, after which it underwent name changes and amalgamation, eventually becoming part of Natwest. Samuel Whitby/Whitty was a grocer and Richard Pew a surgeon.

DH8 has a picture of a building on one side, with scroll above and the motto STET FORTUNA DOMUS along with double-headed eagle. On the other side is the text PRETER / PEW & WHITTY / BANKERS / SHERBORNE / DORSET / 1796 . Note the spelling of "PRETER" here, the second vowel being "E". The plaque on the bank has the spelling "Pretor", with no mention of Whitty/Whitby. The motto is that of Harrow School meaning "let the fortune of the house stand", or similar. Edge PAYABLE AT THE BANK IN SHERBORNE DORSET.

DH9 has the large double-headed eagle like yours, surrounded by the Latin motto above, with no date. On the other side is the cypher PW&P ( rather than the PP&W of DH7 ) with 1796 above, surrounded by the text SHERBORNE TOKEN VALUE ONE HALFPENNY . No mention of the bank on this one. Edge plain.

DH lists DH8 and 9 being manufactured by J Westwood junior for sale to collectors, with Bell concurring.

John Westwood senior with his brother Obadiah Westwood were based at 20-22 Great Charles street, Birmingham, from the 1770's. Later Obadiah's son John Westwood junior joined them. John senior died bankrupt in March 1792, when the firm was taken over by Obadiah and John junior. Boulton had not much good to say about John senior, describing him as a "mere striker of blanks", and "unfit to run a mint". Boulton's views may have been coloured by the facts that John Westwood senior had been a serious competitor for the token trade. Also, they had dealings together which had not worked well for Boulton.

Bell records that DH8 is not found in worn states like DH7, suggesting that it has not circulated. It is also very rare. It was a well-known device of counterfeiters to take details of legitimate businesses and alter them slighty. This clearly has been done with DH8 and 9, reinforcing comments about their reason for existence. Due to their poor financial position, the Westwood's had every incentive to engage in such practices. One source I have mentions that John senior had been involved in counterfeiting. Given the altered names and cypher it could be said the pieces are fictitious rather than counterfeit, but the line is very close like that of the evasion halfpennies. I suggest that given the known incorrect spelling of PRETER in DH8, this token cannot be used as evidence for the correct name being WHITTY instead of WHITBY. I am not aware of the source RBS used for their information.

This is about as much information I could get from my books and the internet. Any more would involved corresponding with or visiting museums. A directory of coin/token makers and diesinkers from the era would be useful. Does anyone know of such a work?