New Token

Ricke

I picked up this token at a coin show in Topeka this weekend. It was a side purchase, because it was very cheap, and I know nothing about tokens. A little google search yeilded that this token was issued as a silver merchant shilling, produced from 1811 to 1812 in the locality of Gloucestershire, by James Whalley. When I picked it up, I would have guessed it far more modern for some reason.

Probably an extemely common token, but I had never seen one before, and it appears in pretty good condition.

Aethelred

As I understand it, those shilling tokens are not so common.

farthing

Common is a relative term. I have no information on this one, or most other shilling tokens from this period. I believe the standard reference is by W. J. Davis titled Nineteenth Century Token Coinage of Great Britain, Ireland, The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Tokens from this period are cataloged by their Davis numbers. There is also a small reference by R. Dalton titled The Silver Token Coinage, 1811-12 and a booklet by Arthur Waters Notes on the Silver Tokens of the Nineteenth Century. The Davis book can be quite expensive, the Dalton and Waters booklets more reasonable.

Both Copper and Silver tokens were produced in this time frame as small coinage was scarce due to the Wars with Napoleon and the US.

I only have 1 shilling token from the period.

Sapyx

This one is listed in my little catalogue of British Tokens (Seaby, 1970) as Gloucestershire, Davis#10; it's also given as Dalton #10. Can't help much with the CV; this old book lists it at £2. Judging by comparative price, it's one of the commoner types of Gloucester shillings; the scarcest (Dalton/Davis #4) is priced at £25.

lordmarcovan

£2 in 1970. Hm. Probably £10+ by now, I would think? Should be worth at least $15 US, I would imagine?

Nice pickup.

1jester

Very charming token, with attractive original toning!

Conder101

<< <i> I believe the standard reference is by W. J. Davis titled Nineteenth Century Token Coinage of Great Britain, Ireland, The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Tokens from this period are cataloged by their Davis numbers. >>


That has been pretty much supplanted by British Copper Tokens 1811 - 1820. by Paul & Bente Withers. The old Davis numbers are rapidly being replaced in price lists because Withers is supposed to be much easier to use. (I can't say first hand becuase I don't have a copy of Withers.)

I have two copies of Davis and it is extremely difficult to use. Identification is made basicly by descriptions, I haven't been able to find a quick way to locate where in the book a token is listed, all the plates are in the back, the coins are not in the plates in the same order that they are listed in the book, and the descriptions in the front do NOT reference which plates the token will be found on! I used the plural plates because often the obverse will be on one plate and the reverse on another. One reason I never did anything on the 19th century tokens was because I could tell I would have to go through the Davis book and cross reference all the plate images, try to come up with a topic concordence and write a comprehensive index for the book before it would be usable.

rwyarmch

This is one area where I haven't "bought the book" but find a piece now and then that is so cute and cheap I can't resist.

1jester

RW, that is one awesome token!

Ricke

Wow! that is a beautiful token.

nice color to it.

Myself, I don't usually purchase tokens, unless they are bank type issues you would find in Krause, but I liked the look of this one. It was priced under ten bucks, so I figured even if they value was just the silver alone, it was a nice piece. It also reminded me of a swiss batzen, which I also like.