Another 17th-century farthing token, with a Tavern sign! A true milestone

[JeandAcre]

It's still only been recently that my collecting has been going back to British stuff over the 17th and the late 18th centuries.  Mostly by way of exonumia.  I'm rediscovering how seamless the convergence of esthetic and historical resonance can be.  Maybe not a moment too soon.

And it took me this long to even notice that the forum has its own category for, Woops, exonumia! With cordial thanks to @lordmarcovan for starting it, and to @DonnaML for drawing it to my attention.  You're both only that cool, and no more!  :<} 

...Meanwhile, this example, like most of them, is undated.  And on stylistic grounds, I can't venture a guess whether it's either c. Protectorate, or early Restoration.  But it has all the compensatory detail for which the whole series, across the adjacent but dramatically contrasting epochs, is well known.

With that obvious shop sign --which, in rapid succession, had to be for (1) a tavern, named (2) the Queen's  Head.

Legends (only clearer in hand): *FRANCIS WATERMAN [/] *IN .. FAVESHAM.  [Sic.]

It looks as though, this early, the town of Faversham had already more or less officially incorporated the still semi-rural town of Boughton. (With apologies, what you get from here are the Wiki articles: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faversham 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boughton_under_Blean)

Here's what I could find about The Queen's Head Tavern --again, thank you, there have been lots of 'em, notably in London and Canterbury.  This seems to be the best candidate.

https://www.queensheadboughton.co.uk/ 

 

 

 

[Rosa Potatos]

Hello! Good to see a fellow 17th century uk token fan.

In the references I have (Williamson and the Norweb books) it is down as the Mercers' Arms, so Waterman was presumably a Mercer.

In Williamson it says "he was Mayor in 1665 and again in 1681. Sarah, wife of Francis Waterman, was buried in Faversham Church, 1694, and Francis himself in 1707."

I really should photograph and post a few of mine here and intend to soon. These tokens are wonderful, a little record of 'ordinary' people rather than Royals. There are so many different types, and if not in a pristine condition, can be picked up on ebay for a reasonable sum. Saying that, I've been outbid on 90% of them and end up with the dregs! I do usually bid £13 though and only go up if the token is really special. Now I've got about 200 of them and only bid on those with pictures or local to me. I love the old spellings of places; was this the result of distant mintings(apparently most dies made in London) or just phonetic pronunciation? These tokens are pretty rough and dark, and often don't look great in photos but here's one from "Margitt" in Kent (Margate). Chas 'n' Dave called it that, so it's pronounciation is consistant over hundreds of years!

sorry only had a wide lens!

Here's the whole tray, OOF except the front row, sorry...

Cheers Jean! For prompting me to stop lurking and actually post something!

[JeandAcre]

@Rosa Potatos, a belated welccome to the forum!  Many thanks for the correction, and terrific detail on Francis Waterman.  Not to mention your impressive level of erudition ...and an Absolutely Stunning assemblage of farthing tokens!  Jusst, Yow.  Glad you got around to posting --wasn't a moment too soon!  Hope you get an honest minute to post more of these, and in more detail.  Yes, the background of the minters is always fascinating.  The series really does provide a distinctive (if not borderline unique) dimension of social history.

[JeandAcre]

"I love the old spellings of places; was this the result of distant mintings(apparently most dies made in London) or just phonetic pronunciation? These tokens are pretty rough and dark, and often don't look great in photos but here's one from "Margitt" in Kent (Margate). Chas 'n' Dave called it that, so it's pronounciation is consistant over hundreds of years!"

@Rosa Potatos, I can venture a guess regarding the variant spellings of place names.  The examples that come to mind are all from the 17th century.  Starting with surnames, I've run into Tuxbury (thank you, Tewksbury --a family name from the New England side) and Warrick.  ...And, Oh, No, I wish I could remember or reconstruct the place name, but there's at least one town from Puritan Massachusetts that used a different, phonetic version of the one it was named for, but preserving the original pronunciation, along the lines that you already noted.

With that as context, it strikes me as more fun, at least, to suppose that many of these were produced locally. 

(Instant edit:) ...okay, with your indulgence, here's another instance from 17th-century New England surnames.  Another family name is Ober, again from Massachusetts.  Turns out it was an Anglicization of the French patronym (likely Walloon than Huguenot) Aubert.  One contemporary civic record gives it the cool transitional orthography, 'Obear.'  Right, again preserving the original pronunciation.

Edited April 1 by JeandAcre

[John Conduitt]

I have a different Queen's Head (pub rather than queen).

I and M R at the Queen's Head Inn Farthing, 1648-1672

Copper, 15mm, 0.91g. *AT.THE.QVEENS.HED.IN around Bust of Queen Elizabeth. I.M.R. *WAPPIN.AT.NEW.CRANE (Dickinson 1993).