What was the purpose/origin of conder tokens?
mgoodm3
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were they short on circulating money? They seem to bunch around the 1795 area.
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Very nice examples, and nice to see copper which isn't AT. I might have to get one of those York tokens.
For you to post pictures like THAT,, to cause my heart to skip a beat...
The Crown was not minting small denomination coins (and had not since 1775), viewing copper as not worthy of Crown coinage. With the Industrial Revolution in full swing large portions of the population were moving from the farms to the cities and needed to be paid as well as to purchase goods. The lack of "good" coinage was especially acute in areas further away from London.
Parys Copper Mines in Wales started minting their own full weight copper tokens for their employees. This soon spread to other copper mining companies and industrialists and then to the rest of the country.
Lots of information on English tokens
Collecting:
Conder tokens
19th & 20th Century coins from Great Britain and the Realm
I will not be drawn in!
Aargh.
<< <i>Related question: why were so many Conder tokens so much more artistic and visually attractive than, for example, the average U.S. Hard Times token or Civil War token (not to knock either of the latter groups)? >>
I believe you can blame Conder token collectors for that!
If I understand the history correctly, Conders were the victim of one of the earliest numismatic "collector crazes". People were actively collecting them way back when they were being used as money. Token issuers (which were wholly private concerns, not government mints) noticed the demand from these collectors and started issuing tokens with the collector primarily in mind. That meant the creation of more artistic designs, "rare" mules and varieties, and so forth. Most of the more artistic ones presumably belong in the "made for collectors" category.
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<< <i>STOP. POSTING. NICE CONDER TOKENS.
I will not be drawn in!
Aargh. >>
Dr J
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<< <i>I believe you can blame Conder token collectors for that! >>
Not completely. Many of the circulation issues also have exceptional engraving and striking quality as well. Part of the reason for the was the competition between Matthew Boulton and Thomas Williams. Boulton had a dream, an inexpensive counterfeit proof copper coinage. Mainly for the poor of Britain but also for the rest of the poor around the world. And he had the machinery and expertise to do it. His location in Birmingham gave him access to a large number of craftsmen skilled in making small metal items (Birmingham at the time was the "capital" of both the "toy" industry, toy meaning any small stamped metal object, and the counterfeiting capital of England.) and he also had James Watt the man who made the steam engine practical and who invented the many ways to connect the output to machinery. Thomas Williams on the otherhand had a stranglehold on copper production and an interest in coinage.
While Boulton was building the Soho mint and beginning to produce coinages for other countries, Williams created the first of the Conder tokens, the Angelsey pennies and half pence, to pay his workers. At that point both williams and Boulton began producing Conder tokens on contract. And both of them tried to produce them of the finest quality they could because both of them were angling for the ultimate prize, a contract with the Crown to produce a new copper coinage for England.
But with Boulton's expertise with the steam engine and his non-domestic coinages he eventually outpaced Williams who finally faded from the coinage race and by 1791 Boulton was striking the Anglesey pennys and halfpence for Williams. Even with his main competitor out of the way though, Boulton could not slack back on the quality because he was still trying to capture that Crown contract, and he still believed in using the superb quality of the engraving and coining to protect people from counterfeits.
There were other small coiners as well, but if they wanted customers they had to try and live up to the standards set by Williams and Boulton. This resulted in the very high quality of the tokens. Most of the lower quality pieces you see are either the product of a very small producer who wasn't in the field for long, or they are contemporary counterfeits of another token of similar design but better quality.
Eventually when the collectors became a major force piece were struck especially for sale to them and made of top quality as well, but they tend to be of more limited mintage.