British trade tokens are the story of the need for small change in daily life when the government was unable or unwilling to provide an currency. Tokens for daily trade became a part of British life in England and Wales soon after the death of Charles I. Not much later, Irish tokens became a part of commerce there as well. (The Scots avoided the problem by allowing an extensive issue of base metal coins.)

The governments of the era simply did not issue small change. Until 1696 there was the additional problem of hammered silver lacking full value because of all the clipping of pieces in circulation. Political instability was a major reason. The Civil War disrupted life. The reigns of the sons of Charles I-Charles II and James II-dealt with the turmoil after Commonwealth rule fell apart after the death of Cromwell. Then the when William of Orange, ruler of the Dutch Republic, came to England with his wife Mary, the daughter of James II, and took over the British throne eventually brought some minting stability, and the great recoinage of 1696 brought a substantial issue of silver.

British tokens are a regular feature of our catalogs. My involvement with them goes back to the time when we (Marnie and I) were just beginning to build a numismatics-based business. We attended local and regional coin shows and published fixed-price lists (with no photos). I first saw these copper pieces about the size of a US large cent in boxes that an older part-time coin dealer had on his table at a coin show. For a couple of dollars each I could buy coppers from the American colonial era that came from England and featured wide-ranging designs. Early on, I responded to an ad run by someone whose name I had seen in coin newspapers offering a dozen (or so, as I recall) uncirculated examples of these pieces for something on the order of $100 or $125. When the parcel arrived, there were more pieces than promised, all of which were pretty close to Uncirculated, along with a note that the extras were because he could not provide as many choice pieces as he had advertised. That was my first transaction with David Bowers.

Our offering of British trade tokens in this catalog includes some marvelous pieces from Baldwin's basement I came upon while researching my update of Dalton & Hamer in the 1980's, and others from the iconic Jim Noble Sale I attended in Melbourne in 1998. Provenances of former owners include Cokayne and Richard Doty, former curator at the Smithsonian.

A marvelous Pidcock piece picturing a rhinoceros and an antelope is followed by some Spence tokens that show his influence on the architects of the American Revolution and their fight for freedom and independence across the ocean.

Next follows a lovely group of classic tokens from Wales featuring the iconic Druid's head.

And some classic tokens from Scotland.

A small but satisfying listing with some gems included. Take a look before the sale closes on Wednesday and these modest mementos of the turbulent late 18th century go to their next owners.

To read the complete auction British Tokens section, see:
E-Auction 45 British Tokens section

For more information, see:
https://davcoin.com/

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
DAVISSON'S E-AUCTION 45(https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n41a24.html)