Old Bronze Forgery Of Spade Token?

Another brass gaming/advertising token, from CHARLES somebody, probably the MAKER, from BIRMingham, where many of these were made.

there were many gaming tokens, which is why so many survive today.
there were many varieties, although the spade seems to dominate.
I haven't researched the point, but I won't be surprised to learn that there were numerous manufacturers.

In my lifetime, gaming tokens have always been plastic. I don't know when manufacturers shifted from brass & other alloys. I suspect that the sort of tokens you are looking at were in use, and therefore in production, from the 1700s, right through the 1800s, and possibly into the 1900s.

tokens sometimes had design elements which refer to contemporary issues - usually political. The "To Hanover" tokens of 1837 are an example. Sometimes, they are satirical. Quite a few French tokens of the 1850s poke fun at the emperor, Louis-Napoleon, a.k.a. Napoleon III.

Try a search on Charles Peverelle, Birmingham.

It says so right there on the coin: you can see "C.H.A.R.L.E.S." to the left of the shield, and "B.I.R.M." (for Birmingham) to the right.


Yes... unless it was one of Charles' competitors, trying to get Charles in trouble with the law. The dubious legality of these card game tokens meant that very few of them unambiguously state a maker like this one does.

This website has another one similar to yours, and states that Peverelle made these sometime in the mid-1800s.

Thanks guys !