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Trade Token
hyf88
Posts: 294 ✭✭✭
Recently purchased this token but haven't been able to find out much about it, possibly British in origin? Didn't see anything in the Rulau book for this vendor. Anyone ever come across one of these?
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It is British and falls under the designation as a "unofficial farthing". Bell's catalog "Unofficial Farthings" lists this piece from Dereham in Norfolk as Bell-1540 with the notation as rare (a mid-range rarity level as they go from very common to extremely rare in seven steps). It uses the Crystal Palace 1851 reverse which was a stock die used on a number of the hundreds of so-called farthings. Let me find Token Book 2 to see if there is any more information listed there.
From Token Book 2 by Paul & Bente Withers: "At the time of the 1851 census, Edmund Brewster, tea and coffee dealer, who lived next door to the King's Arms Hotel in the Market Place, was aged 28 and his wife 27. They had one child, a son aged 4, and a domestic servant."
Thanks for the great information!