Posted 11/02/2010 11:45 am
Great Britain was not the only country that suffered periodic shortages of circulating regal copper coinage. Just as British businesses used and produced tokens to take the place of official coinage (witness the "Conder" token era and others), France's Monneron brothers ordered huge quantities of 2 sol and 5 sol pieces from Mathew Boulton at the Soho mint for their business. Boulton used the steam press technology of the Soho mint to produce millions of these beautiful tokens and most are found worn from their use in France.
A couple of neat references are Richard Doty's "The Soho Mint and the Industrialixaton of Money" and Richard Margolis' article "Mathew Boulton's French Ventures of 1791 and 1792..." in the British Numismatic Journal #58 (1988)
A couple of neat references are Richard Doty's "The Soho Mint and the Industrialixaton of Money" and Richard Margolis' article "Mathew Boulton's French Ventures of 1791 and 1792..." in the British Numismatic Journal #58 (1988)
