SGB’s Token Auction 1 October 2025 | Rare Irish Unofficial Coinage and Farthings
Richard Gladdle
26 September 2025
Stanley Gibbons Baldwin’s Token Auction – 1 October 2025
In the auction Baldwin’s are having at the beginning of next month there is a very large section of 19th. century Irish unofficial coinage that was issued mainly in Dublin but for use in the whole of Ireland.
Irish Tokens as Historical Currency
To put them in context, at the end of the first decade of the 19th. century, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was at war with France that would only come to an end with the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in the middle of 1815.
British 18th and 19th Century Tokens
Find out more about the irish tokens from our upcoming auctions.
One of the many results of this war was inflation and the price of silver and copper went up, partly due to the massive need of metal for the war effort. Previous copper issues, such as the Soho cartwheel issue of 1797, became worth more than their denominational value and being melted down resulted in a dire shortage of copper change. This, coupled with firstly, the increasing industrialisation and the pressing need to pay factory workers their wages and secondly, the inability of a government, consumed in the war effort, to address the situation, led to an impossible situation, after all, the everyday transactions of most Britons was in pennies, halfpennies and farthings and largess for the poor was non-existent.
Dublin Issuers and Their Designs
Tokens were issued by the ton and if you look through the catalogue there is a myriad of professions issuing them. However, such was the need of small change, that very soon copies and counterfeits were made of genuine good weight tokens which posed a real problem for the merchant redeeming them and very soon, although these tokens solved the problem of no official small change, the whole copper coinage situation was simply a mess.
Initially, the issues of these tokens were eagerly greeted and accepted by the working public - in this time of scarcity of small change, but very soon there was public alarm - with bankruptcies in the increasingly worsening economic climate when issuers failed to redeem their tokens or redeem them at a discounted rate.
Counterfeits, Copies, and Circulation Issues
However, in July 1812 the government forbade the issue of tokens, but it referred only to silver or gold, excluding copper issues that were allowed to continue.
Finally, a bill was passed in Parliament in July 1817 to make the circulation of tokens illegal by 1st Jan. 1818, although those tokens issued by workhouses were permitted to continue circulating until the beginning or 1823 on the grounds of ‘inconvenience to the poor’.
Dublin had its fair share of issuers and Edward Bewley a grocer at 35 South Earl Street issued a fine token (lot 374) featuring Wellington and Hibernia – looking very similar to an official George III issue – which probably aided its general acceptance amongst the Dublin public.
James Hilles was an ironmonger in Abbey Street and produced a very handsome penny (lot 375) with two men working in a rolling mill, and a sprig of Shamrock on the reverse. It is recorded that Hilles was the first man regularly to have a boat service on the Royal Canal when it opened in 1808, connected Dublin to the River Shannon.
Edward Stevens was listed in the directories of the time as a ‘Proprietor of Merchant Stores and Patentee of the Improved Malt and Corn Kilns’ and was situated at 35 James Street. He was essentially a builder’s merchant specialising in the manufacturing of kilns – these were essential for drying wheat, barley and oats before it could be milled into flour. Presumably the cockerel on his token (lots 376 to 375) is the Stephens crest as it is standing on a ‘torse’. They are quite scarce.
He also issued two more tokens, one bearing the portrait of the Prince Regent (George IV to be) (lot 379 and another with the military bust of Wellington. Both these tokens with the Irish harp on the back look very official which was probably intended as this was an aid to being accepted by the public. In the auction there is a white metal example of his Wellington penny (lot 381) which is possibly some sort of trial and extremely rare.
Many other copies and specious pennies and halfpennies were issued and many of them slightly under weight. Some were outright copies of the George II regal issue (lot 388 and 389), and some were weird imitations where the king’s head, looks more like a long haired Wellington, but perhaps is meant to be St. Patrick! Again, looking like an official regal issue to make the piece more likely to be accepted.
Cloughjordan in Co. Tipperary also produced a token (lot 373), issued by the banker and nurseryman William Hodgins in 1858. Until recently this was always considered as an Australian token, but since Hodgins returned to Ireland from Australia six years before the date of this token, it really must be Irish.
Once more, in the middle of the 19th. century, there was another serious shortage of small copper change in the Country – and in the 1850s, the Master of the Royal Mint put this down to the private export of coin to the Colonies. The Mint was working flat out but gold and silver took president over copper. Although the circulation of tokens had been banned in 1818, the use of smaller denominations continued, especially in Ireland and Scotland. In this mid century of famine and depressed economy the many Irish drapers, grocers, tobacconists, ironmongers and spirit merchants etc. needed to give change in the process of their everyday small transactions but this time it was almost all in farthing form, ie. the ‘Unofficial Farthings’ series.
To promote public acceptance by looking official, many of them bear the portrait of Queen Victoria as can be seen in this pretty farthing of pawnbroker William Reardon of Cork (lot 447), or that of drapers Swanton & Co., of Cove (lot 449).
Lot 447: Cork, William Reardon (pawnbroker), farthing, (late1840s), city name/head of Victoria l. 21mm. (W 5850 Good Ex…
The design of the majority are simply legends both sides but some have interesting devices such as grocer and spirits dealer John McCarthy of Barracktown who features a standing Chinaman holding a sprig of tea on his token (lot 422), or ironmonger William Seymour of Cork who features on his copper-gilt farthing the god Vulcan standing next to an anvil (lot 436), or linen & woollen draper John Egan of Limerick who shows a spinning wheel on his farthing. (lot 466), or another Limerick draper John Unthank whose farthing features a plough and shuttle (470).
The scarcity of small copper change also meant no largess for to the poor which was critical in these bleak times of the Irish Famine. Two philanthropic organisations in Cork and Limerick, the ‘Mont de Piete’ issued farthings especially for this purpose, (lot 442 and 468). The Mont de Piete’ was charitable, philanthropic institution managed by local worthies, the Church and politicians.
Probably the most interesting pieces in this collection of Irish Unofficial Farthings are three silver proofs (lots 439, 440 and 461) of which there are no records of any of the three having been sold in the last ninety years or so. They come from the collection of Francis Cokayne, which was bought by Baldwins in around 1946 and the accompanying Cokayne tickets record that he himself bought them from Fletcher Collection on the 1st April 1933 for 10 shillings each. Lionel Fletcher sold his collection through Glendinings in March 1934 so presumably Cokayne had first pick of the collection before it came to auction. They are excessively rare and hitherto have only been ‘reported’ to exist by Woodside and Whyte.
Many of these tokens are in above average collection and it would appear that they were put together in the mid 20th. century or slightly before, as many have shop tickets in the hand of Alfred Baldwin.
If you want to see any of the items mentioned here and many more Irish tokens from the towns of Armagh, Ballymacarett, Belfast, Carrickfergus, Clonmel, Cloughjordan, Clyne, Cork, Cove, Downpatrick, Dublin, Galway, Glenlough), Killarney, Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire), Limerick, Loughrea, Macroom, Mallow, Portlaw, Newtonards, Skibbereen, and Tralee. Check out our British 18th and 19th Century Tokenspage for the full list of Irish Tokens in the auction.
