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British Merchant Tokens

by Michael E. Marotta, 17 Jun 1994

The standard catalog is called The Provincial Token-Coinage of the 18th Century by R. Dalton & S. H. Hamer. (Quartermain Publications, Inc.; Lawrence, Massachusetts. 2nd ed 1977. with a new (3rd) edition available.)

Dalton and Hamer organize their work by county and town. (Stratford is under Warwickshire; Norfolk is under Norwick; etc.) So, if a token says "Boston" or "Derby" you have to know England in order to know where to look. While the book should be considered complete, the fact is that with perhaps 15,000 issues total, you could conceivably come across a coin that is not listed. More likely, you might find an unlisted variety of a catalogued issue. Most likely, any 18th century British token you buy will be in cited in Dalton and Hamer.

Here on the Coins mailing list, there was a question about a token from Norwich. Without seeing the token, of course, latitude is needed, but it sounds like Norwich 14:

Obverse:

Arms of Norwich (Castle with 3 towers above Lion with its right paw raised.) MAY NORWICH PROSPER. Pro bono publico.

Reverse:

Shield of arms of the county (three crosses grouped upper right; three crosses in a line lower left); beams? or narrow gauge cannons? behind shield. NORFOLK AND NORWICH HALFPENNY.

Edge:

Payable at N. Bolingbrokes Haberdasher &c. Norwich.

In the previous article on Conder tokens, I described two Wilkinson tokens. D&H lists over 150 varieties, including counterfeits and misspellings. The one token that can be regarded as most common (if any can in this wild array of laissez faire coppers) is the ANGLESEY from Wales. ("There is no information as to who were the issuers of the tokens of North and South Wales, though several tons were struck. . . . John Morgan of Carmarthen, Iron Master and Tin-plate manufacturer issued five tons of his tokens.") The Anglesey tokens feature a Druid. At least 467 varieties are known.

Michael E. Marotta

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