CONDERS! New Withers (Galata) Guide for British Tokens

Daltonista

Just got mine (pictured below) and I'm formulating a lot of pro-and-con thinking about its
usefulness. Stand back!

"The Token Book" is about 500 pages long in "handbook" format (5.5" x 8.75"), and it's "lavishly
illustrated" with color photographs. Those are actual-size photos, so it's not like Charlton VII
(Canadian, folks!) blowing up and highlighting the number and location of the laurel leaves in
King George's wreath.

What's most helpful is that it provides current estimates of values for most Conders and other token
series from the 1600's through Dalton silver and Evasion pieces. That statement should go into the
"loosely speaking" category, because the range of conditions for which values are provided changes
from series to series. So, for the 17th century you get values for "fine" only. The 19th-century Dalton
silver pieces show valuations for EF only, while Conders and Davis coppers are listed in F-VF-EF. The
range for Evasions is two slots: Fair and Fine.

What's least helpful, IMHO, is that the new book collapses "varieties" into their "types" in the two token
series I happen to collect....Davis/Withers 19th-century coppers, and Dalton silver.

In order to figure out what some effects of that might be, I did a quick tally for my own entertainment,
focusing on the relatively short run of Yorkshire/Sheffield tokens from the 19th-century (Davis, Withers)
series. Here's what I turned up:

As seen in both Davis and Withers, there were six distinct series of 1811-20 copper tokens issued in Sheffield:

"For Public Accommodation"
The Workhouse (Overseers of the Poor)
S. Hobson & Sons
Phoenix Iron Works
Roscoe Mills (Roscoe Place)
18 Norfolk Row

All told, those six "issuers," produced a total of 50 separate and distinct [known] varieties, including the types
and subtypes that subsume all those varieties. In the new book ("Galata," shall we call it?), these 50 tokens
are all "represented," if you will, by only twelve examples, with lowest-common-denominator values given.
And that's it for Sheffield.

Of those 50, the rarity count in Withers (1999) breaks out like this:

S = 4
R = 13
RR = 20
RRR = 6
C, VC, and N = 7

See the problem? The same phenomenon is encountered in the Dalton silver section.

Okay, that's it for now...I'm not knocking the book. It's going to be very helpful for Conderites, especially,
and the run of photos for the 17th-century series is phenomenal! I'm just offering the opinion here that if
you collect Davis and Dalton material, you still need the "old" catalogs (Withers 1999 included) in order to
distinguish varieties from one another. Also noted is the dilution, I suppose you'd have to call it, of the
Non-Local and Anglo-Canadian coverage as compared against Withers 1999.

Bottom line caveat: In "my" two token series, but emphatically NOT in the others, the new book is not a
comprehensive price guide for people who don't know what varieties they have. I hasten to add, in
fairness to the authors, that they do not promise such a thing in their preface, and they indeed emphasize
some of the book's limitations there, along with the reasons why it cannot be all things to all people.

Okay, back to raking leaves now...

Best to all!
Tom

farthing

Thanks Tom for your comments on this most talked about book! It has been generating a lot of commentary among Conder collectors. The arguments have been on the question of the usefulness of a price guide for such relatively thinly traded tokens.

It is important to remember that the grading in the book is based on traditional UK standards, not US standards. There are also some generalizations that can be debated about the differences between UK and US based collectors of Conder tokens that may also be true for collectors of the 19th century series.

Most 17th century tokens come in 2 grades - scudzy and worn but legible. So having prices for only Fine examples probably makes sense.

There certainly has been a great deal of interest in a new price guide for Conder tokens. I believe the book will be most useful to casual collectors of these tokens and not so useful for advanced collectors of any of the series. In this vein the consolidation of series into several common examples of the variety may make a lot of sense. A casual collector of Conder tokens may have only 1 or 2 common Anglesey pennies (Druid design) in their collection and to them one common Anglesey penny token is just like another. In your example of the Sheffield 19th century tokens nearly 80% of the varieties are rated R or higher. A casual collector will likely have just one of these, which will probably be one of the VC/C/N varieties.

I am still debating about buying this book so your feedback is appreciated!