The History of English Tokens

[John Conduitt]

Warning: this post has no gold or silver. It doesn’t even contain any coins.

Most collectors are familiar with Conder tokens, which exploded onto the scene in the Georgian era to satisfy the need for small change. But the history of the English token reaches much further back, and their uses were more diverse. Tokens date to the lead tesserae and copper spintriae of the Romans, but they were not common in England, if they were used at all. Blank discs may have been used as tokens in the 1100s, but the history of English tokens really begins in the next century in London.

In the 1200s, traders in London sewed pewter tokens to their clothing to show they had the right to ‘cry, carry and sell’ their wares. They were not unlike the larger pilgrim badges sold as religious souvenirs from the 1300s. Many designs featured beasts like the Paschal Lamb, a religious symbol used in heraldry. The consistency in design and composition suggests they may have been made by the nascent Worshipful Company of Pewterers, a trade guild still a couple of centuries from getting its Royal Charter. Such tokens are found today in the mud along the Thames, but also in Paris, suggesting a link between English and French guilds.

Sewn Token, 1200-1250

London. Pewter, 12x13mm, 0.27g. Quadruped right, head reverted; beaded border. Blank reverse. Double loop at the top for attachment (cf Mitchener-Skinner Sewn Token Type 3). Found on the Thames foreshore.

Soon afterwards, similar round tokens (without the loop) circulated in London. The earliest of these have a beaded border, like the sewn tokens. They seem to have been used as low denomination coins when the smallest coin, even when cut into quarters, was worth the wage equivalent of £18 today. This theory is backed up by the discovery of a bagful of these tokens in Winetavern Street, Dublin, thought to have been ordered in bulk from London by an innkeeper, but discarded in haste when Edward I introduced round farthings and banned tokens.

Michael Mitchiner and Anne Skinner provide a classification for English medieval tokens, largely based on style since their dates and uses are ambiguous. They suggest that rather than being pure money, tokens were used as a chit for service. The church paid people to attend certain services in tokens, which could be spent at ‘all participating vendors’. The church may also have issued tokens to pilgrims to pay for board and lodgings along their route, the pilgrim having paid the total amount up front.

Either way, secular trade and the Church were intertwined. According to Mitchiner and Skinner, the Church was the only recorded pewter manufacturer before 1300, presumably as the governing entity rather than literally producing it. The Pewterers Guild, who regulated the trade, associated in churches and would’ve had strong ecclesiastical connections. Some tokens feature guild emblems and were possibly used in a similar way to alms, distributed to guild members in need of support. Charity is still a cornerstone of the Pewterers Guild today.

'Winetavern Street’ Token, 1250-1300

London. Pewter, 0.79g. Double-headed eagle. Shield with barry of nine (Mitchiner-Skinner Type D 46). Ex Barry Woodside.

As well as a medium of exchange, tokens were used as reckoning counters. Traders could perform financial calculations with these jetons in a similar way to an abacus, at a time when the use of Roman numerals made arithmetic tricky. This had previously been done with coins, and the jetons often look like Edwardian pennies. It’s even thought they were struck at the new Tower Mint in London with the same dies.

English jetons are punched on one side, to help centring during the production process. French jetons do not have this punch hole. Again, they’re difficult to date, so Philip Mernick’s classification for English jetons is based on design elements. However, by the mid-14th century most jettons came from France, often from Tournai.

Edward I Jeton, 1282-1289

Tower. Copper, 20mm, 1.65g. Facing bust of Edward I (from the punch of a Fox Class 4 penny) inside border of rosettes. Long cross pattée, fleurs at ends, sun and moon in angles, inside border of rosettes. Both sides unepigraphic (Mernick Series 2a).

In the early 1300s, the composition of tokens changed from two-thirds tin to pure lead. This was possibly after a move to secular manufacture, undercutting the Church. The transition may have been accelerated by the Black Death, which took hold in 1348. The pictorial form was replaced by geometric designs.

Geometric Jeton from the time of Edward II, 1307-1327

London. Copper, 21mm, 1.98g. Star and crescent, pelleted border. Three large pellets around central pellet, pellet border (Mernick Series 4l, Sun and Moon, Obverse 4l.4, Reverse 4l.10).

The lead and tin content varied through the 1400s, when both geometric and pictorial designs were used, especially heraldic shields but also merchant emblems. They were probably used as receipts for goods and services. These are still found almost exclusively in London, although some types are attributed to the Home Counties. Mitchiner and Skinner divide these by size and style and propose that the different types might’ve been produced by different manufacturers.

The largest group of tokens from this time is that with a cross and pellets reverse. Their uniformity points to centralised control, possibly by the Pewterers, while the range of designs suggests many types of user, from ecclesiastical to trade to brothels. Similar (but separately produced) tokens are also found in Paris, suggesting continued links between English and French manufacturers, possibly through the guilds.

Cross-and-Pellets Token, 1425-1490

London. Pewter-lead, 12-13mm, 0.54g. Three concentric squares superimposed on a cross. Cross with pellets in annulets in corners (Michener-Skinner Type 35).

Despite their growing use in trade, religious tokens were common. The most famous of these was the Boy Bishop token issued in Suffolk (and also found in France). Many feature St Nicholas and were likely handed out as alms, redeemable at the church, by the Boy Bishop, a child elected each December to reign over the parish from St Nicholas’ Day to Childermas. The tokens resembled contemporary coins, with a cross-and-pellets reverse. Stuart Eborall Rigold divides these into 11 series, based on size (penny, halfgroat and groat) and the level of degradation of design and legends.

Boy Bishop Intermediate Period Mitre Type Token, 1530-1540

Bury St Edmunds. Lead, 19mm, 2.90g. Mitre; rudimentary striate legend. Cross and pellets, striate legend. (Rigold Series IX; Mitchener-Skinner Boy Bishop Type 38).

Boy Bishops were suppressed during the reformation and under Elizabeth I, but Mary I was a fan. The need for tokens never waned, so when the practice was clandestine the legends and symbols on the tokens become cryptic. A secular design featuring a crown instead of a mitre was also used.

By this time, token production had fragmented, and numerous traders issued lead and tin tokens for use as small change. Elizabeth I’s innovations like the three-farthings and three-halfpence coins failed to solve the ever-growing problem of dividing coins. Tokens were smaller, lower in tin and lower in quality than before the Reformation. But rather than the stock geometric designs of the previous century, there was a lot of variety. Many featured initials or inscriptions in Roman script (as opposed to Gothic), and were often pictorial, referencing such things as taverns, vocations and merchant marks. Communion tokens were popular, and Jetons were still very common, most of which (from the early 16th century onwards) came from Nuremberg, giving them the name ‘Nuremburg Jetons’.

Elizabeth I Token, 1570-1600

London. Lead, 20mm, 3.19g. Phoenix (a symbol of Elizabeth) with spread wings; SOLA PH-NIX MVNDYE (‘only one phoenix in the world'). Crowned double rose, mullet on crown; BEATI REGINA (Blessed Queen) (cf 778-782 in Charles Roach Smith, Catalogue of the Museum of London Antiquities).

In another attempt to solve the shortage of change, James I banned private tokens in favour of his new copper farthing tokens, produced not by the Royal Mint but by Lord Harington and then the Duke of Lennox. Charles I continued this scheme, giving his patents to the Duchess of Richmond (Lennox’s widow) and then Lord Maltravers.

Note the similarity of the reverse of the token below to that of the Elizabeth I token above - the earlier tokens featured a harp, which is thought to have been to allow them to be used in Ireland if they failed to be accepted in England. Most weren’t used in Ireland (only the oval ones were), although even today they’re often listed as ‘Irish’ by dealers. But the harp was blamed for their unpopularity in England (rather than the fact that you had to exchange them at less than face value unless you could get to the Token House in London), so it was changed to a rose.

Charles I Rose Type 5a Farthing Token, 1643-1644

London Token House. Copper with brass segment, 14mm, 1.13g. Single-arched crown, sceptres with bosses on handles cross beneath crown, privy mark mullet both sides; CAROLV . D : G . MAG : BR. Single rose; FRA : ET : HIB : REX . (Everson Rose Type 5a 208a; Peck/BMC Type 3a 348). This token was produced by Parliament, with the sceptres crossed below the crown to distinguish them from earlier farthings. They wanted to demonetise the latter so Charles I couldn’t produce them and exchange them for silver to fund his army.

These farthings didn’t solve the problem, and private tokens of lead and copper were produced by traders throughout. Official token production stopped early in the Civil War, at which point the manufacture of private tokens exploded to fill the void. These were small, personalised, ‘mercantile-tavern’ tokens.

Christopher Flower Farthing Token, 1650-1652

London. Lead, 14.7mm, 1.73g. CHRISTOPHER.FLOWER around fleur-de-lis. Shield containing Draper's Arms (a London guild) (Mitchiner-Skinner Token 68, p.41). Christopher Flower was a London draper. The fleur-de-lis might be his shop sign.

Many of these tokens were copper, often featuring three letters: the initial of the surname at the top, and the initials of the husband-and-wife underneath. The token below was therefore produced by N.V. and his wife E.V.

Black Boay Tavern Farthing Token, 1651

Ratcliff, London. Copper, 0.98g. Young negro boy holding a clay pipe in his right hand away from his mouth and a beer mug or serving jug in his left hand; within twisted wire inner circle; *AT.THE.BLACK.BOAY around. N.E.V. within twisted wire inner circle; *.IN.RATCLIFF.1651 around (Boyne and Williamson 2371). At the time, the Black Boy was a common name for a tavern.

Trade tokens from this era are also notable for the inscription ‘His Half Peny’, which came about because of the misapprehension that the possessive ‘s was an abbreviation of his i.e. Joseph Stent’s halfpenny was short for Joseph Stent, his halfpenny. Instead, it probably comes from the Old English use of the suffix '-es' with singular genitive nouns e.g. the landlordes halfpenny, and the practice of replacing unpronounced letters with an apostrophe e.g. he walk’d to the tavern.

Joseph Stent Halfpenny, 1666

Wapping, London. Copper, 1.56g. Wheatsheaf in twisted-wire inner circle; *JOSEPH*STENT*AT*THE* around. Rev: HIS HALF.PENY.1666 in twisted-wire inner circle; *NEW*CRAIN*IN*WAPPEN* (Boyne and Williamson 1994). The Wheatsheaf was also likely a tavern.

Charles II banned tokens again in 1672 and copper tokens disappeared. The use of lead tokens, however, increased, fulfilling an even wider array of uses. Designs were often uniface and now came from all over the country. Locally produced, they were of poor quality and design, such that they look much older than they are. Since they were banned, personal designs disappeared and stock designs grew. David Powell’s classification of these is based on the simplistic designs on each side. They often resemble lead seals (two discs joined by a connecting strip, and crimped together to fasten bags and textiles), which in some cases, they may be.

Post-Medieval ‘Petalled Flower’ Token, 1672-1820

England. Lead, 21mm, 4.64g. 6-petalled flower (Powell Type 1). Flower designs are the most common, because of agricultural uses and because it was an easy design to create.

These tokens had commercial, ecclesiastical and agricultural uses. Some were gaming counters, others were transport passes. Some were used by inns as small change and still more were used for communion. They featured symbols to represent their use, but it’s best not to make assumptions about what the design meant – a boat might represent ferry transportation, a maritime business, an inn called ‘The Ship’, or the Ark of Salvation. A major user was agriculture, where tokens helped tally bushels (to pay workers such as when picking hops) or to show where a picker left off at the end of the day. Such tokens tend to feature numbers.

Much of the little that’s known about these tokens comes from the fact that some are dated. These indicate that as time went on, tokens got larger. Powell says the diameter of a non-municipal piece was normally 15-16mm until about 1660, increasing gradually to 18mm in the mid-late 1660s and 20mm by 1820.

Post-Medieval ‘Animals’ Token, 1672-1820

England. Lead, 21mm, 7.30g. Horse head in bridle left. 1600 between hatchings (Powell Type 19/8). Perhaps this was used to bet on the horses in 1600, although Newmarket’s racecourse wasn’t even built until 1636. Is 1600 the value? The horse’s number? The 4pm at Kempton?

The problem of small change persisted. Parts of the country far from London didn’t have a good supply of copper coins, since they could only be bought at the Royal Mint in London. The development of modern minting methods in the second half of the 18th century, such as by Matthew Boulton at the Soho Mint in Birmingham, enabled the private sector to step in. They were helped by the counterfeiting laws in the Georgian era, which allowed tokens as long as they were not copies of coins.

Colonel Charles Mordaunt owned a cotton mill in Halsall, Lancashire. Like other businessmen at the time, business was booming and he had no shortage of money, but he had no small change to pay his workers. He’d already been speaking to Matthew Boulton and his partner James Watt (the steam engine inventor) about the supply of a steam engine to power his mill, when in 1783 he asked if Boulton might also mint him some tokens. Boulton had been producing coin weights, so it wasn’t unreasonable that he might.

Halsall Penny Token, 1783-1786

Soho, Birmingham. Copper, 16.4g. Arms of the Earls of Peterborough. HALSALL, D. (D&H Lancashire 1). PCGS 39826797, XF45BN. The reverse is a die match to the one in Dalton and Hamer (p. 63), which perhaps shows how low the mintage was.

Halsall’s tokens were produced for local use, and by 1791 had ceased circulating, probably because they were lighter than the vast array of tokens they’d spawned across the country, such as the famous ‘Druid’s Head’ issued in 1787 to pay workers at the Parys Mine Company. These tokens were copper and bronze, and mostly halfpennies, either carrying political messages or promoting the local businesses that issued them.

Newgate Halfpenny Token, 1795

Middlesex. Copper, 27.5mm, 10.60g. Newgate prison. Payable at the residence of Messrs Symonds, Winterbotham, Ridgway and Holt (DH Middlesex 396b). The government was keen to stop the spread of revolutionary ideas, but their clampdown on free speech was seen as unjust. Henry Symonds and James Ridgway were booksellers imprisoned for selling Pigott's "The Jockey Club" and Paine's "Rights of Man". William Winterbotham was punished for two seditious sermons. Daniel Holt got four years and a fine of £100 for printing Paine's books. He died in prison aged 33. Newgate was rebuilt in 1780, the left wing reserved for debtors, the right wing for criminals, the administration in the middle.

The problem of small change was finally solved under George III. This was done using Matthew Boulton’s machinery to mass produce copper coins, the Great Recoinage of 1816 (which pumped silver coins into the economy) and the adoption of the gold standard, when the face value of coins was decoupled from the value of the metal. This enabled cheap coins to be produced without fear of inflation or counterfeiting. Tokens production was banned in 1817 and paying workers in tokens was banned in 1831. But tokens weren’t finished. Modern manufacturing methods soon led to a wide variety of materials and styles, and more uses than ever.

Royal Institution 'T' Ticket (Highly Important Member's Pass), 1804

London. Copper gilt, 29mm, 13.32g. Tree springing from mural crown; ROYAL INSTITUTION 1804. T; William Bridgman Esq PRI, FLS (Linnean Society of London) (W 2679). Maybe there is a little gold in this post after all.

Today, electronic payments have ensured tokens are following coins in their decline. Even so, the terminology lives again, in the form of crypto tokens and those of the non-fungible type. They just don’t look as good.

English Token References

Medieval Pewter and Lead Tokens
Michael Mitchiner and Anne Skinner, English Tokens c1200 to 1425
Michael Mitchiner and Anne Skinner, English Tokens c1425 to 1672

Medieval Jetons
Philip Mernick, English Jetons

Post-Medieval Lead Tokens
David Powell, British Lead Tokens

Modern Tokens
George Charles Williamson, Trade Tokens Issued in the Seventeenth Century
Dalton and Hamer, The Provincial Token Coinage of the 18th Century

Edited January 12 by John Conduitt

[Al Kowsky]

John, This is a fascinating & informative essay 🤩! The first two tokens have a medieval appearance making them look much older than the 13th century 🧐.

[JeandAcre]

Yep, John, this is absolutely brilliant.  I've never seen as comprehensive an outline of this material before, especially of the early phases.  Very enlightening.  Many thanks. 

[IanG]

Thank you, John, a very interesting summary of English tokens. It looks like you have a comprehensive collection.

A growing sideline of mine is the English Provincial Token Coinage of the late 18th Century; that which was intended to serve the purpose of coinage, as opposed to the tradesmen and political tokens (although even those circulated to some extent). Technically, of course, even the ones meant for wide circulation such as the one below were promissory tokens redeemable for regal coinage, but for the best part of a decade after 1787 such 'coins' were the de facto operative currency throughout much of Great Britain. About 400,000 of these halfpennies were issued in the city of Hull alone and they circulated widely throughout East Yorkshire. What I also like is the fact that genuine bargains can still be found in this area - this cost me just £3.41 a few weeks ago!

In addition to the books you have set out above, I highly recommend David Dykes' Coinage and Currency in 18th Century Britain - The Provincial Coinage. Official list price is £65 but the book has been out since 2011 and there are a couple of outlets in the UK selling new copies for less than £20.

 

 

Yorkshire, Hull.

Halfpenny Token 1791.

Equestrian statue of William III. WILLIAM TERTIUS REX, in exergue MDCLXXXIX (1689) / Shield of Arms between sprigs of oak, with eight acorns on each side; HULL HALFPENNY.

Edge: PAYABLE AT THE WARHOUSE OF IONATHAN GARTON .X.

DH17.

12.44g, 29mm.

Edited May 12, 2023 by IanG

[seth77]

A wonderful opportunity to add some Crusader tesserae that were likely used as local money in the Italian markets of cities like Saint Jean d'Acre and Jaffa in the late 12th and the 13th century. The analogies are mostly partial to material recorded by R. Kool 'Lead Token Money in the Kingdom of Jerusalem' (The Numismatic Chronicle 173).


13mm, 0.5g lead local monetary token/tessera mercantile, ca. 13th century.
cf. Metcalf Coinage of the Crusades... pp. 306-307, Kool Lead Token Money in the Kingdom of Jerusalem (The Numismatic Chronicle 173) p.320 #81 for a similar obverse design (Atlit/Chateau Pelerin provenance, ca. 1218-1265) and p. 326 #152 for the reverse design (Saint-Jean-d'Acre provenance, 13th century).

 

12mm, 0.74g lead local monetary token/tessera mercantile, late 12 - early 13th century.
reverse design cf. Kool p. 320 #18, from a specimen found in the lower city of Jaffa, in a densely populated domestic quarter; obverse design unknown in the works of Kool, the hexagram is reminiscent of the deniers of Deols from the late 12th century. Great Negev desert patina.

 

14mm, 1.39g lead local monetary token/tessera mercantile, 13th century.
cf. Kool p. 322-323 #102-103, typical for the tokens used by the genoese living in Acre.

 

 

15x16mm 2.77g tessera mercantile(?) or gate token, ca. 13th century.
Unrecorded as far as I know, possible identification from Tripoli (or Antioch?) during the reign of Bohemond "le Borgne" or Bohemond V of Antioch.

Edited May 12, 2023 by seth77

[John Conduitt]

5 hours ago, IanG said:

A growing sideline of mine is the English Provincial Token Coinage of the late 18th Century; that which was intended to serve the purpose of coinage, as opposed to the tradesmen and political tokens (although even those circulated to some extent). Technically, of course, even the ones meant for wide circulation such as the one below were promissory tokens redeemable for regal coinage, but for the best part of a decade after 1787 such 'coins' were the de facto operative currency throughout much of Great Britain. About 400,000 of these halfpennies were issued in the city of Hull alone and they circulated widely throughout East Yorkshire. What I also like is the fact that genuine bargains can still be found in this area - this cost me just £3.41 a few weeks ago!

In addition to the books you have set out above, I highly recommend David Dykes' Coinage and Currency in 18th Century Britain - The Provincial Coinage. Official list price is £65 but the book has been out since 2011 and there are a couple of outlets in the UK selling new copies for less than £20.

 

 

Yorkshire, Hull.

Halfpenny Token 1791.

Equestrian statue of William III. WILLIAM TERTIUS REX, in exergue MDCLXXXIX (1689) / Shield of Arms between sprigs of oak, with eight acorns on each side; HULL HALFPENNY.

Edge: PAYABLE AT THE WARHOUSE OF IONATHAN GARTON .X.

DH17.

12.44g, 29mm.

That's a great token, especially for the amazing price. Yes it's easy to get into Conders, not least because they're thematic and get nice and local, a bit like the C17 tokens but more abundant and in better condition. A lot of forces came together - economic growth, a shortage of change, loopholes in counterfeiting laws, political unrest, freedom of speech, availability of copper, improved manufacturing techniques, flourishing private enterprise and a good understanding of marketing.

I will definitely give that book a go. I have one token from Yorkshire, the first commissioned by Samuel Birchall. He published the first reference for tokens based on his own collection, A Descriptive List of the Provincial Copper Coins or Tokens issued between the Years 1786 and 1796, two years before Conder.

Birchall enlisted Matthew Boulton of the Soho Mint to issue tokens to represent the wool trade in Leeds (on behalf of a consortium led by local silversmith Henry Brownbill). Birchall wasn't happy when Boulton re-used dies of St Patrick, but he still went back and had more tokens made. He'd worked out he could make good money in the difference between what the tokens cost him and their face value.

Henry Brownbill Halfpenny Token, March-May 1793

Soho Mint, Birmingham. Copper, 29mm, 11.76g. Bishop Blaize with long beard and mitre, holding a wool comb; SUCCESS TO THE YORKSHIRE WOOLLEN MANUFACTORY. Aerial long perspective view of Leeds Coloured Cloth Hall, built 1765; LEEDS HALFPENNY around. Plain edge with lettering PAYABLE AT H. BROWNBILL'S SILVERSMITH (DH Yorkshire 31; Birchall L 12, P.47). Bishop Blaise was a 4th Century Armenian martyr, put to death with red-hot rakes. As the patron saint of wool combers, he gets to hold his own rake.

[Romismatist]

Cool write-up, many thanks John! 

 

[John Conduitt]

10 hours ago, JeandAcre said:

Yep, John, this is absolutely brilliant.  I've never seen as comprehensive an outline of this material before, especially of the early phases.  Very enlightening.  Many thanks. 

Yes I wrote it after spending far longer than I expected trying to work out how all my tokens fitted together, how old they were and what they were for. There's comprehensive information on Conders (although even that history has a lot of blind spots), but otherwise you're almost relying on a single study for each era and type (C13 ecclesiastical, C14 jetons, C15 pewter, C19 lead etc) and most of the time those barely mention other types of token, let alone how they're related.

It took me a couple of years of collecting to even hear about pewter tokens, Elizabeth I lead tokens and C19 lead tokens (apart from apparently very common knowledge about hop tokens of which I have yet to find a conclusive example).

[JeandAcre]

Well, many thanks for putting together your own synthesis of all of this!

I had no idea that existing references were so mutually fragmentary.  Even for Conders and the Commonwealth-Restoration farthings and ha'p'nies, I'm still very challenged; most of what I get is from ACsearch and CoinArchives.  But it's never kept me from liking them, for the reasons you note.  Here's the best of only a couple of Conders I have, and the only one there are pics for.  (Looks like it's going to take digging into documents, old posts and maybe even email correspondence to find pics of the 17th-c. ones.  None are great, but they're all fun.) 

This shows the cathedral of York, with Clifford's Tower, the 13th-c. shell keep of the city's main and sole extant castle (apart from what's left of the motte of an earlier one).  The gallows evokes the keep's name, which came from Thomas de Clifford, an early rebel against Edward II, before most of the English baronage followed suit.  In his case, timing was everything; he was hung in chains above the keep's forebuilding. 

...I'd dearly love to visit York, and walk some of the city walls.  I like how their state of preservation both evokes and transcends what's left of the ones in Canterbury.  (Right, the other primary bishopric, at the opposite end of the country.)  

Edited May 13, 2023 by JeandAcre