‘Between about 1648 and 1673, almost no small-value coins were minted by the government’.[1] What we got instead were trade tokens. The wealthy could use credit but everyone else who needed to do business began to rely on trade tokens. Farthing or penny tokens would be pressed by individual businesses. Most were made of copper but sometimes brass, tin, pewter and maybe even leather or less durable materials. Therefore, trade tokens can tell us about the social and economic life of a town or city, or even a concentrated area within them. Hundreds of trade tokens still exist in collections around the world, within both small and large museums. Sometimes overlooked by the coin collector, they should perhaps be considered together with such collections.
Seventeenth-century token of William Campian, at the sign of crossed swords, Rochester, Kent
Tokens were for local usage, for those who possibly lived or also worked in the same areas. By the Restoration the diarist John Evelyn thought the trade tokens were being driven out of circulation ‘The tokens’, he wrote,
Which every tavern and tippling house (in the days of late anarchy and confusion among us) presumed to stamp and utter for immediate exchange, as they were passable through the neighbourhood, which, though seldom reaching further than the next street or two, may happily in after times come to exercise and busy the learned critic what they should signify and fill whole volumes with their conjectures.[2]
This observation supports the idea that the circulation of tokens was very local, ‘seldom reaching further than the next street or two’. Evelyn was incorrect about the demise of trade tokens, as they appeared in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries too, however, the concentrated nature of their circulation does not necessarily change in any dramatic fashion.[3]
The idea that it was the taverns and coffee houses that may have originated the practice of trade tokens as noted in the Evelyn quote is of interest, and more analysis is maybe needed here. What is clear is that, in Middlesex at least, the grocers were the next most prolific issuers of tokens, they in turn were followed by bakers and candle makers.[4]
Trade tokens normally have information on both sides to inform the owner of the location and issuer of the item. For example, a trade token now in The British Museum (BM, T.3728) with the denomination of a halfpenny made of alloy has an image of a Maypole on one side. It was issued by a man named Phillip Complin whose name circles the Maypole, just above the Maypole the words ‘AT THE’ and inscribed and the year 1666 is present in the centre. The reverse is inscribed ‘IN THE STRAND DISTILLER’. Clearly, this token was valid at a distiller shop located by the famous Strand Maypole in London located in front of where the Church of St Mary le Strand, London (built between 1714 and 1723 and consecrated in 1724) now stands. This was the Maypole Charles II had placed there in 1661.[5] After the previous one had been removed under Oliver Cromwell.
Therefore, trade tokens can show us what types of businesses may have been located in certain areas. Another similar token also part of The British Museum collection (BM, T.3733), shows the Maypole running through a bell and the inscriptions note it is ‘BY IOHN DOLLEN POVLTERER’ though no specific date is given it is almost certainly between 1649-1672. The bell may mean there was a bell sign by the shop.
1667 token of Thomas Baker, Cheesemonger of Canterbury, Kent
A token from Thomas Baker a cheesemonger in Canterbury dating from 1667 has a hand holding some scales as its image. The image here is nice and clear, others are deeply worn. As part of the London Museum collection, they have a token issued by Henry Richardson worth a half penny for his business at the sign of the Bear and the Bowl, in St Mary Magdalen courtyard but it is so worn it is almost impossible to make this out. Iconography ranges from tennis rackets (see an example in the Ashmolean), to books, fish and pretty much anything you can imagine. There are lots of trade tokens in museum collections so do explore these.
In 1672 proclamations prohibited trade tokens being issued and severe penalties were imposed on those who broke this rule so the trade token (although not disappearing altogether) gradually faded away.
Tokens have been found throughout the British Isles and continue to be discovered by all manner of people not least archaeologists on professional digs, mudlarkers, especially down at the Thames in London, field walkers, gardeners, and anyone who has an eye for an old, maybe dulling tiny metal object.
In 1889 the antiquarian and numismatist William Boyne published his extensive guide to trade tokens, still the single most useful reference for the items.[6] These fascinating tiny round pieces of metal still have stories to tell and hopefully more research will be carried out on them in the future.
References and Resources:
J. R. S. Whiting, Trade Tokens: A Social and Economic History (1971).
P. Mathias, ‘The People’s Money in the Eighteenth Century: The Royal Mint, Trade Tokens and the Economy’ in The Transformation of England. 1st ed. (London: Routledge, 1979). 190–208.
W. Boyne, etc. Trade Tokens Issued in the Seventeenth Century in England, Wales and Ireland, by corporations, merchants, tradesmen, etc. Two Volumes (1889).
‘Secrets of the Thames: Mudlarking London’s lost treasurers’, London Museum Docklands, is currently running until March 2026, and includes trade tokens, https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/whats-on/secrets-thames/
[1] V. Sparkes, ‘Making change: uncommonly political currency’, London Museum, 2017.
[2] J. Evelyn, Numismata (1697).
[3] P. Mathias, ‘The People’s Money in the Eighteenth Century: The Royal Mint, Trade Tokens and the Economy’, in The Transformation of England: Essays in the economic and social history of England in the Eighteenth Century (London and New York: Routledge, 2006 reprint of 1979), p. 190.
[4] G. Clegg and C. Hammond, ‘Brentford and Chiswick Trade Tokens’ Brentford & Chiswick Local History Journal, 16, 2007.
[5] ‘St Mary-le-Strand and the Maypole’ Old and New London: Volume 3. Originally published by Cassell, Petter & Galpin, London, 1878, pp. 84-88.
[6] W. Boyne, etc. Trade Tokens Issued in the Seventeenth Century in England, Wales and Ireland, by corporations, merchants, tradesmen, etc. Two Volumes (1889).
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So interesting! I have never heard of these.