Welcome to the annual token auction at Baldwin’s. This year there is a good collection from America of 18th. century tokens – the Washington Collection, then the Francis Gissing Collection of 19th. Century Tokens, a collection of Irish Unofficial Farthings and lastly a collection of 19th century English and Welsh Pub Checks.
The ‘Washington Collection’ of 18th. century tokens is some 197 lots of mainly English halfpenny tokens, all in very good condition. There are some rarities such as the Purim token of the Cabbage Society (lot 45)
and another Wildman token (lot 99) which although not exceptionally rare, always attracts a lot of attention.
There is also a good selection of Spence tokens including two Mendoza pieces (lots 82 & 83), the famous Jewish boxing champion;
And two hangman tokens (lots 89 and 90) celebrating the ‘End of Pain’, ie Thomas Paine – author of the ‘Rights of Man’ and co-writer of the American Declaration of Independence!
The Francis Gissing Collection is one of the best collections of 19th. century tokens ever to have come onto the market and with the exception of perhaps the ‘Cokayne Collection’, which was auctioned some six years ago, there has been no equal, regarding condition and rarity. Baldwins bought all Cokayne’s tokens in 1946 and both the ‘Cokayne Collection’ of six years ago and this collection have come from the same Baldwin’s source – Whereas the ‘Cokayne Collection’ came from Baldwin’s in 2018 to be auctioned a year later, this collection was put together mainly in the latter half of last century with a few added in this century.
A lot of the tokens are likely ex Cokayne, although sadly, in most cases the original tickets haven’t been kept. The few tickets that do exist, show H C Drury and Alfred Baldwin provenances before WWII. Unlike the 18th. century series, 19th. century tokens weren’t collected at the time and were much more utilitarian. Consequently, they do not generally exist in uncirculated condition as they all passed as much needed small change. Most of the tokens in this collection are uncirculated and thus rare and there are many type rarities too.
Probably the prize piece is the silver Penny of John Barker of Norwich (lot 330) - not recorded by Davis and exceptionally rare. Another very rare token for Norfolk is that of Morston (lot 324), these were unknown until sometime in the 1990s when a small stache must have been found and a few good condition pieces appeared on the market.
There is a good selection of Irish tokens and an excessively rare piece is the tin penny of Edward Stevens of Dublin (lot 381). Probably some of the most interesting items, and probably unique, are the card and paper tokens for the Birmingham Workhouse, (lots 267 to 272). They probably predate the copper tokens by a few years and are possibly the only in existence! They may well be trials and it is not known whether they were ever issued.
The collection of Irish Unofficial Farthings was put together in around the 1930s or 40s, nearly all have AHB shop tickets. Of particular interest are the three silver proofs of George Beale of Cork (lots 439 & 440) and Todd Burns of Dublin (lot 461) – all three were acquired by Cokayne from the Fletcher collection in April 1933 as his tickets record and perhaps these are the pieces reported to exist by Withers in his 2013 catalogue.
Lastly, there is a good collection of English and Welsh Pub Checks and the majority of them come from West Midlands public houses. There has been much debate recently as to how exactly these 2½d. and 3d. tokens were used and although much of 19th. century Birmingham has been swept away by the town planner, there is a certain attraction for these little tokens for taverns in which our grandfathers drank, that more often or not, no longer stand (the houses, that is!).