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    Tokens and Traders of Kent in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
    Tokens and Traders of Kent in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
    Tokens and Traders of Kent in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
    Ebook165 pages1 hour

    Tokens and Traders of Kent in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

    By David Villanueva

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    About this ebook

    THE PROVINCIAL TOKEN-COINAGE
    Coins traditionally contained the value of the metal they were made from, less a nominal amount for the monarch and mint master and could only be produced by Royal decree. By the sixteenth century the penny and its fractions had been reduced in size by inflation becoming inconveniently small to manufacture and use. The general population resorted to using token coins containing less than their intrinsic value of metal until the monarch provided sufficient usable coinage for the needs of trade.
    Trade tokens were issued in three distinct periods, the first during the seventeenth century, 1648-1672. The second in the eighteenth century, 1787-1801 and finally the nineteenth century, 1811-15. As well as being collectable, like coins, tokens issued by tradesmen contain personal information such as name, location, trade and even spouse’s forename initial in many cases and will be of interest to genealogists as well as family and local historians. Metal detectorists are a large group of regular finders of these tokens, who will also be looking for a means of identifying their metal detecting finds.
    AVAILABLE SOURCES
    A number of eminent numismatists (including Atkins, Boyne, Conder, Dalton, Davis, Dickinson, Hamer, Pye and Williamson) have studied these tokens and produced extensive catalogues, generally covering the whole of a series. Until now the only solution to identification was to wade through these catalogues. The asking price for any of these catalogues, new or used, can be upwards of £50 per volume. These catalogues can be borrowed free from the Library but there are few copies in circulation and waiting times can be lengthy. Many of the catalogues were compiled in the 19th and early 20th centuries so some have been scanned and are available online. The problem with scanning old texts is that the scanner has no real comprehension of what is written and so records what it perceives and the result can be gobbledegook! A further problem is that genealogical information and full token details have been abandoned in more recent catalogues to keep the printing costs and cover price down. This serves the collector well but disadvantages not only the family and local historian but also the finder of excavated tokens where only parts of the detail may be visible.
    TOKENS AND TRADERS OF KENT
    The nature of tokens is that they circulated very near to their place of issue so that the merchant concerned could exchange or redeem them for regal coins. While 18th and 19th century tokens did travel far and wide, especially those redeemable in several major cities, they remained common in their home county. Seventeenth century tokens, those of London excepted, generally only circulated within a seven mile radius of their place of issue. Seven miles was the typical distance between markets where the tokens would have been accepted.
    This book is written for the finder, family and local historian of Kent. It catalogues all Kent token details available including all genealogical and local information recorded in earlier books (details of some taverns, inns, and hotels have been updated). In all some 600 recorded seventeenth and around 50 eighteenth and nineteenth century Kent tokens are included, many of which are illustrated.
    An illustrated section on popular token designs aids identification but the great advantage of an electronic book of this type is that you can use your reader’s search facility. If you find a token that has been excavated, it may not be completely legible. Using what you can see you will usually very quickly track the token down via the search facility. You can search on any string of letters or numbers, design, quantities of lines, shape, unusual metal, value, etc. and providing it is a Kent token, I am confident you will find it!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDavid Villanueva
    Release dateAug 21, 2015
    ISBN9781311427632
    Tokens and Traders of Kent in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
    Author

    David Villanueva

    David Villanueva (1951- ) was born in Birmingham, England, where he grew up. In the early 1970s his mother bought him a copy of Ted Fletcher's book A Fortune Under Your Feet, which, together with David's great interest in history inspired him to buy a metal detector and take up treasure hunting as a hobby. Family stories about the origins and history behind David's Spanish surname also spawned the hobby of genealogy. A career move brought David to Whitstable in Kent, England, and it was here that David's love of history research developed into great success both in metal detecting and family history research. A little later David felt the urge to put pen to paper and started writing articles for the two British metal detecting magazines - Treasure Hunting and The Searcher – which have published more than two dozens of David's articles between them. Success in writing articles soon led to David's first book: The Successful Treasure Hunter's Essential Dowsing Manual: How to Easily Develop Your Latent Skills to Find Treasure in Abundance, published in both digital format and paperback. To date, David has written over a dozen books in the metal detecting, treasure hunting and family history genres.

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      Book preview

      Tokens and Traders of Kent in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries - David Villanueva

      TOKENS AND TRADERS OF KENT

      in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and

      Nineteenth Centuries

      DAVID VILLANUEVA

      Smashwords Edition

      All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including scanning, photocopying, or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder. Copyright 2015 David Villanueva

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      1. Introduction

      2. Seventeenth Century Tokens

      3. Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Tokens

      4. Kent

      5. Seventeenth Century Tokens of Kent

      6. Eighteenth Century Tokens of Kent

      7. Nineteenth Century Tokens of Kent

      8. Bibliography and Resources

      8.1. Great Books in Print from the Same Author

      1. INTRODUCTION

      Coins traditionally contained the value of the metal from which they were made, less a nominal amount for the monarch and mint master and could only be produced by Royal decree. The original penny was made of silver and weighed 1/240th of a Troy pound. That is why we had 240 pennies in our pre-decimal pound. Of course, as the price of silver rose, which it inevitably did through inflation, the size of the coin decreased until by the sixteenth century the penny and its fractions became inconveniently small, both to manufacture and use. Monarchs of the time had no desire to have their portraits engraved on a lower value metal so the general population had little recourse but to use token coins containing less than their intrinsic value of metal until the monarch provided sufficient usable coinage to sustain the needs of trade.

      Trade tokens were issued, to alleviate shortage of small change, in three distinct periods, the first during the seventeenth century, 1648-1672 (1679 in Ireland). The second period of trade token issuing was in the eighteenth century (including the first two years of the nineteenth century), 1787-1801 and finally the nineteenth century, 1811-15. As well as being collectable, in their own right like coins, tokens issued by tradesmen, as opposed to corporations, contain personal information such as name, location, trade and even spouse’s forename initial in many cases and will be of particular interest to genealogists as well as family and local historians. There is now a large group of regular finders of these tokens, metal detectorists, who will also be looking for a means of identifying their token finds.

      A number of eminent numismatists (including Atkins, Boyne, Conder, Dalton, Davis, Dickinson, Hamer, Pye and Williamson) have studied these tokens and produced extensive catalogues, generally covering the whole of a series. Until now the only solution to identification was to somehow wade through one or more of these catalogues. The asking price for any of these catalogues, new (if available) or used can be upwards of £50 per volume. These catalogues can be borrowed free from the Public Library Service but there are few copies in circulation and waiting times can be very lengthy. It is true that as many of the catalogues were compiled in the 19th and early 20th centuries some have been scanned and are available online. The problem with scanning old texts is that the scanner has no real comprehension of what is written and so records what it perceives to be written and the result can be gobbledegook! A further problem, particularly with seventeenth century tokens is that genealogical information and full token details have been abandoned in more recent catalogues to keep the printing costs and cover price down. This serves the collector well but disadvantages not only the family and local historian but also the finder of excavated tokens where only parts of the detail may be visible.

      The nature of tokens is that they tended to circulate very near to their place of issue so that the merchant concerned could exchange or redeem them for coin of the realm. While 18th and 19th century tokens did travel far and wide, especially those redeemable in several major cities, they remained common in their home county. Seventeenth century tokens generally only circulated within a seven mile radius of their place of issue. Seven miles was the typical distance between markets where the tokens would have been accepted. However, tokens issued near county boundaries would have also travelled into neighbouring counties, while London tokens travelled all over the Home Counties.

      This book is written for the casual finder, family and local historian of Kent. It catalogues all Kent token details available including all genealogical and local information recorded in earlier tomes (details of several taverns, inns, public houses and hotels have been updated). In all some 600 recorded seventeenth and around 50 eighteenth and nineteenth century Kent tokens are included, many of which are illustrated.

      An illustrated section on popular token designs aids identification but the great advantage of an electronic book of this type is that you can use your reader’s search facility. If you find a token that has been excavated, it may not be completely legible. Using what you can see you will usually very quickly track the token down via the search facility. You can search on any string of letters or numbers, design, quantities of lines, shape, unusual metal, value, etc. and providing it is a Kent token, I am confident you will find it!

      2. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY TOKENS

      The small coinage of Britain from the earliest times was of silver; transactions requiring money of low value were carried on by means of black money, turneys, Abbey-pieces, crockards, dotkins, staldings, and other base foreign currency, as well as by English leaden Tokens, all of which were illegal, and against the circulation of which many severe laws were enacted by our earlier monarchs. Silver money was coined as low in value as the penny, three-farthings, halfpenny, and farthing; all these were in common use, but from their small size and weight – the silver halfpenny of Elizabeth I weighing only four grains – they were extremely inconvenient and were easily lost. Small change of a more useful size and weight was required, even though it must consist of a baser metal. In the reign of Elizabeth, pattern-pieces were struck, and a proclamation drawn up, legalising the circulation of copper money; but owing to the difficulties the Queen had experienced in restoring the standard of silver money, which had been much debased during the extravagant reign of Henry VIII, her aversion to a base currency was so great, that the project was abandoned without trial. Pennies and halfpennies of small size, however, were issued in 1601 and 1602 for circulation in Ireland, and Elizabeth granted authority to the Mayor and Corporation of the City of Bristol, to issue a Corporation farthing Token.

      The need for small change being urgent, Leaden Tokens, generally of poor workmanship, continued to be issued by tradesmen until 1613, the eleventh year of the reign of James I, who then delegated his prerogative of striking copper money to Baron John Harington, for a monetary consideration; the patent however was granted for farthings only.

      On the accession of Charles I to the throne in 1625, the patent for the coinage of farthings was renewed. The privilege was grossly abused by the patentees, who issued them in unreasonable quantities, and of a merely nominal intrinsic value, the coins weighing only six grains each. They encouraged the circulation by giving twenty-one shillings in farthings for twenty shillings in silver; by this means many unprincipled persons were induced to purchase them, and

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