Author: BNS Blog Coordinator

A fifth Cork groat of the readeption of Henry VI – Oisín Mac Conamhna and Jack Pope

Very recently, one of us wrote about the four Irish groats then known from the second reign of Henry VI, all from Cork, in the political and numismatic context of the contemporary earldom of Desmond. Even more recently, the other of us has acquired a fifth newly-found specimen of this coinage. The purpose of this note is to record and describe this addition to the corpus.

A Christmas Shilling From Manchester, 2013 – Gary Oddie

This note presents a very recent shilling token issued for Manchester Christmas Market, 2013. Correspondence at the time with the designing artist and Manchester City Council revealed the story behind the token. The market is still going strong, unlike most of the web pages used only a decade ago  – a useful reminder that modern tokens need recording before they are forgotten.

From Beldibi to Bedfordshire – 11,000 Years of Tokens Part 3. Coming Full Circle – Gary Oddie

This final instalment brings the story to a close with a simple graphical method to show how tokens were the likely precursors of coins and all currency. The only difference is that tokens are issued by individuals or small groups of people for local use and coins and currency are issued by a state or official body and defined to be current by law. Both tokens and coins rely on rules and an understanding of how they are to be used. The token story is bookended with a neolithic clay cone from Beldibi c.9000 BC and a stone cone used in a Bedfordshire pub in 1990. And here is access to the earlier articles: Part 1, Part 2

From Beldibi to Bedfordshire – 11,000 Years of Tokens Part 2. Pushing the Boundaries – Gary oddie

This Blog, the second in a series of three, presents a very brief overview of a conference held at Warwick University in 2017 – Tokens: Culture, Connections, Communities. The series of talks took the concept of tokens back to the early classical civilisations and with the work of Denise Schmandt-Besserat to the neolithic and the first appearance of locally organised societies, record keeping and the beginnings of writing.A clay envelope dating from 5500-4500 BC is probed using 3-D X-ray tomography to allow the tokens inside to be imaged, along with the maker’s thumbprint in the clay. …. or click here for part 1

From Beldibi to Bedfordshire – 11,000 Years of Tokens Part 1. What is a Token? – Gary Oddie

This Blog, and parts 2 and 3 to follow shortly, have been produced following a few requests for a permanent record of a talk that I gave at this year’s Token Congress. Each of the slides presented in this first instalment is essentially a summary of a whole talk given at some point in the past 20-30 years. Topics covered include; regal shillings, counterfeit shillings, token shillings, local tokens, world tokens and postal orders.

A Contemporary Counterfeit Irish Base Shilling of Elizabeth I, c.1559 – Gary Oddie

This note takes a close look at a counterfeit shilling found in a hoard possibly from Co. Tipperary in Ireland sometime around 1966. The hoard comprised exclusively the base coins (white money) that were circulating in Ireland prior to the introduction of a “fine” (11oz) silver coinage in 1561. These factors leave only a very narrow window for the manufacture of the counterfeit and the deposition of the hoard. A further piece, originally suspected to be another contemporary counterfeit, is shown to be a worn genuine coin.

Isaac Desborough of Eltisley (Cambridgeshire W/D 100) – Gary Oddie

For well over a century the only known example of this seventeenth century token was a very corroded specimen held in the Fitzwilliam Museum. The surname is incomplete but begins DES and the central shield design is too worn to be identified. This is the only “incomplete” Cambridgeshire token to be listed in Searle, Williamson and Dickinson.As part of a project to study the tokens of Cambridgeshire two further pieces have recently been found that allow the description to be completed. Background details of the issuer and his family are presented that make connections to Oliver Cromwell and the witch trials in New England a generation later.

WARNING – Deceptive Medieval Counterfeit Silver – Henry IV Half Groat – Gary Oddie and Dave Greenhalgh

A few weeks ago GO was asked for an opinion on a few medieval hammered silver coins. One piece was a Henry IV light coinage half groat from 1412. From DG’s book Obv. 1. Rev. 4. A unique coin in the British Museum.This note presents XRF analysis of the piece along with eight genuine half groats of the same period. The metal is silver, but trace elements always present in genuine medieval hammered silver (typically Gold ranging 0.3-0.5% and Bismuth 0.01-0.05%) were completely absent from the piece in question.This prompted a much closer inspection that revealed features of the surface that are “not quite right” and eventually traces of where a countermark R had been erased.The piece has been traced to a group of modern replicas, being sold quite openly and correctly as such with the identifying R countermark. However when the replica is damaged, scratched, has its edge filed, the R erased, and is artificially toned, it becomes a

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