The collector gains inspiration and enthusiasm for the acquisition and study of coins and medals from many sources. Whilst chief among these are numismatic texts, catalogues and mentors, seemingly unrelated and serendipitous experiences may impinge upon the mind, and forge a link with numismatic musings. This confluence of ideas can have a productive outcome, as I hope is the case in the example offered in this note.
Author: BNS Blog Coordinator
How to Make a Seventeenth-Century Token – Gary Oddie
This Blog presents practical experiments relating to the manufacture of seventeenth-century tokens. New token dies have been cut, a screw press set up with realistic weights added to the arms, blanks cut and tokens struck. The experiment has been instrumented so that the die movement and striking force can be measured. The force is measured to be about 20 tonnes and with this set-up the natural frequency allows a token to be struck every four seconds. The practicalities and costs of seventeenth-century token manufacture are discussed.
Bedfordshire Tokens, Tickets, Checks and Passes – Supplement 2 – Gary Oddie
This is a second supplement to Bedfordshire Tokens, Tickets, Checks and Passes. These are mostly time/tool/pay checks from the county’s heavier industries in Bedford and Luton. The most important additions are two specimens of an anonymous lead token found at Pertenhall, at the very north of Bedfordshire, on the border with Northamptonshire and the old Huntingdonshire. The design of the token is unusual in that it bears a head in profile. The tokens are from the same moulds, found a few metres apart over a two year period. This is unlikely to be a coincidence and suggests that these lead tokens are of very local manufacture and use.
Richard Southgate’s Anglo-Saxon Coins – Hugh Pagan
The present note, devoted to the collection of Anglo-Saxon coins made by the Rev. Richard Southgate (1729-1795), is a sequel to the author’s previous note on this blog which discussed Southgate’s numismatic career.
Two Shillings From Guadeloupe – Or Are They? – Gary Oddie
The coinage of the Caribbean in the early 19th century was a mixture of pieces from many countries. The coins were often countermarked to allow them to pass. Most are very rare and this has resulted in later concoctions and false marks. This blog presents two such spurious marks and identifies the issuers. The first, on a 1787 shilling, was manufactured by Emile Zay (1830-1909), a coin dealer from Paris. The second, on a Leeds Workhouse shilling token of 1811, was manufactured by S.G. Myers Adams, a die sinker and dental mechanic, based in Leeds.
The Identification of an Enigmatic 12th Century Penny – Robert Page
In April 2024 a unique coin was found near Gloucester and was subsequently recorded via both the PAS and the EMC. In both databases it is listed as a variety of Henry I Type 9; this identification being based on review of the coin by Dr Martin Allen, whose concise note on the coin will be forthcoming in the next volume of the BNJ. In this article I will highlight some interesting points concerning the coin and will suggest a possible alternate identification for this enigmatic penny.
The Welsh Copper Company and its Silver Shillings – Gary Oddie
This had originally intended to be a short note and die study of the shillings issued by the Welsh Copper company between 1723 and 1726. However, whilst most collectors and catalogues are aware of this short series, the background story, with just one notable and recent exception seems to have fallen through the gaps in the numismatic literature. The note will begin with an historical overview of metal exploitation, especially Welsh copper and silver and their contributions to British coinage, followed by the Welsh Copper Company and finally the die study of the shillings struck at the Tower Mint struck from their silver.
Richard Southgate (1729-1795) – Hugh Pagan
Richard Southgate (1729-1795) took on responsibility for the British Museum’s coin collection on his appointment to the British Museum staff in 1784, and remained in charge of the collection until his death. The present note sets his role as a numismatist in the context of his wider career.
An Intriguing Sterling of John I of Brabant 1268-1294 – Denis Martin
It is now almost forty years since N. J. Mayhew published a masterly study of the coinage produced in Northern Europe in the late 13th and early 14th centuries imitating the English sterling. This, the first major publication on the subject written in English, carried references to the works of earlier authors many of which are rather inaccessible to present day collectors of these sterling imitations. Mayhew had been unable to find a coin to illustrate in his book for example M50 although he had records of its existence. Such a coin, recently bought by the author from Jean Elsen et ses Fils, Brussels, provided an interesting field for research using information from foreign authors of the 19thand 20th century.
Card Advertising Tokens c.1930? – Part 4 – Gary Oddie and Kai Towe
This note adds six new cardboard advertising tokens and an unprinted blank to the 16 previously published. The card tokens are in the Royal Mint Museum collection. Background notes are presented for all of the pieces. The final card penny is shown to be a self-advertisement for the novelty advertising company of D. Harper & Co. of Holloway Road, London. Contemporary adverts confirm that this company was a manufacturer of card advertising pennies with images of the monarch on one side.
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