Birmingham & West Midlands Overview
In the auction Stanley Gibbons Baldwin’s are having at the beginning of next month there is a predominance of unofficial coinage that was issued for use in Birmingham and the West Midlands.
Token
SGB Token Auction 1 Oct 2025 | Birmingham Tokens
Richard Gladdle
26 September 2025
Starting with the 18th century there are several tokens issued in the 1790s for Birmingham. Of special interest is a brass penny (Lot 147) issued in around 1796 by the publican of the Leicester Arms in Bell Street, John Freeth and we see him sternly posing on his token wearing his characteristic tricorn hat.
Freeth, Sketchley, Bisset and the Lunar Circle
Freeth was also known as the Birmingham Poet and the pub he kept was the meeting place of radical Whigs, Freemasons, free thinking tradesmen, professional types and even members of the fabled Lunar Society. Political opponents and supporters of Pitt nicknamed them the Jacobin Club and they would debate into the small hours, discussing political issues of the day, regaled in verse by their publican host.
There is a contemporary oil painting by the German artist Johannes Eckstein of one of their meetings and the round faced Freeth can be seen third from the left. Also, in the painting can be seen two other issuers of tokens, the radical Freemason James Sketchley (above Freeth) and James Bisset (fourth from the right) who owned a shop selling fancy goods and petrification ornaments in New Street. Both of these men issued halfpenny tokens.
Sketchley in 1795, featuring the masonic arms (lot 228) and Bisset a halfpenny at around the same date, showing stone obelisks and urns in his shop (lot 50).
Early 19th Century Trade Tokens During War Shortages
Birmingham and the West Midlands were particularly active in the early 19th century when Britain was at war with France and there was a lack of copper small change and merchants and mill owners had to make their own, if only that their customers could be given change and their workers paid.
Thomas Gibson of Birmingham who was a metal rolling and wire manufacturer issued a splendid penny token (lot 253) in 1812 showing off his works in Bradford Street.
So did the iron master Samuel Fereday at Bilston and Priestfield. For these massive furnaces he issued both a twopence and a penny (lot 245), both dated 1811, to be paid to and used by the workers.
Birmingham Parish Workhouse Issues
Probably the most interesting series of this period is that issued by the Birmingham Parish Workhouse. The building on the token stood between Lichfield Street and Steelhouse Lane and was built some time shortly after 1734. Nothing remains of the Workhouse now and its location is presently occupied by Coleridge Passage. In its time it could accommodate over 600 people, both the infirm and poor who were occupied in diverse, menial labour and work.
In 1789 Josiah Robins, a worsted manufacturer from Digbeth, was given permission to set up a factory adjoining the workhouse, specifically to employ the poor living there. Their earnings were paid weekly, but not given directly to them, but to the governor so that expenses could be deducted. In 1812 and 1813 the Workhouse issued a threepenny (lot 273), twopenny and penny token and the pay that the poor received would be in this form to be accepted by certain local shops for strictly necessary provisions and not gin or ale. These shops could then redeem the tokens at the Workhouse.
It would appear that 1812 was not the first year that the Workhouse issued tokens. In this auction are some possibly unique card tokens for 5 shillings and 2/6 pence (lot 272) dating to the first decade of the nineteenth century. These are unissued and it is not known if the series was actually issued and whether the examples in this auction are simply trials. Were they adopted. If they were, the issued card tokens are unknown.
West Midlands Issuers Beyond Birmingham
It was not just Birmingham that issued tokens in this early 19th century. Many West Midland localities issued penny tokens and places such as Burslem, Bromwich, Brierly, Cosely, Darlaston, Dudley, Litchfield, Netherton, Oldbury, Perry Barr, Tipton and Walsall are all represented by token issuers from these locations which can be seen in the auction.
Pub Checks from the 1850s to 1880s
Lastly, there is a good collection of pub checks from the 1850s to 1880s at the end of the auction. There is an emphasis, in the collection, of Birmingham and the West Midlands locations.
Pub checks were issued as part of the attraction of renting or using rooms in a public house, that is, part of what was paid for included discounted tokens for refreshment. The group, such as a Friendly Society or Burial Club, was issued with a number of tokens that allowed the members of the group to purchase at a reduced rate. This encouraged the use of the pub and of course, once there, the bearer of the token might drink much more than his discounting check represented.
In the last 75 years much of the centre of Birmingham has been swept away and many Victorian streets no longer exist and with them their pubs.
A good example is the Prince of Wales that stood on the corner of Angelina Street and Stanhope Street in the Highgate area of Birmingham and the publican, Frederick Webb, issued a 2½d token (lot 519) some time in the 1860s. Thanks to the Birmingham History Forum we have a picture of this pub standing empty in 1957 before it was finally demolished in 1960. The site is now part of a school. We even have a picture of the licensee Frederick Webb whose family ran the Prince of Wales well into the 20th century.
Why These Tokens Matter
Many of the pubs represented in these pub checks are no longer extant and these little coins provide a very interesting link to the past which when researched reveal a marvellous insight into the towns and cities of the West Midlands, which are so changed today with our high rise and motorways, and so relevant to family history. There are some 150 different West Midland pubs in this auction covering all the major and minor localities of this conurbation.
Explore all the Birmingham and West Midlands token collection from Stanley Gibbons Baldwin’s Token Auction, 1 October 2025.