I have an interesting one today – a penny token minted in 1794 for M. Lambe & Son, Tea Dealers and Grocers of Bath in Somerset. GREAT BRITAIN Time of George III, 1760-1820 CU Penny Token (29.5mm, 21.30g, 6h) Dated 1794 Obverse: TEAS COFFEE SPICES & SUGARS. around camel, bridled, walking left under radiating sky, carrying load on its back; star in exergue Reverse: M. LAMBE & SON TEA-DEALERS & GROCERS BATH * around view of the Old East India House within dotted border; INDIA HOUSE above, date below On edge: WE PROMISE TO PAY ONE PENNY ON DEMAND. References: Numista 504216 (this coin pictured) Mintage: unknown In NGC encapsulation, graded MS 63 BN. From the Rumney Animal Collection. Rich dark chocolate patina. Much rarer than the halfpenny type. Struck with the same dies on a doubly thick flan. This token was minted at the very end of the 18th century, a time when the British empire was just beginning to come into its own. It’s true, the American colonies had recently been lost, and there were serious troubles in Europe; but elsewhere across the world, notably in India, British trade, power, and influence were ever increasing. From these distant foreign lands came a flood of new and exotic luxury goods: tea, tobacco, coffee, sugar, spices, textiles, and other commodities. As the scale of the trade grew, so did the ability of the everyday Englander to partake of its riches. Goods once considered luxuries only for the ultra-wealthy became increasingly available to the general public. It was in this context of foreign trade and far-flung empire that this token was struck, and its design was most certainly intended to evoke and accentuate the spirit of the age. On the obverse there is the image of a camel, an animal itself redolent of the mysterious Orient, laden with strange and exotic goods, plodding under a foreign sun. The reverse depicts the place where it all happened: the East India House in London, which was the headquarters of the British East India Company, the huge chartered company that at the time still essentially ran India and all trade in the Far East. East India House, London, circa 1766 By T. Simpson (1766) - William Foster, The East India House (London, 1924), opp. p. 132, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26266317 Mark Lambe (died c. 1791) was a tea-dealer and grocer who ran his business out of a shop on Stall Street in Bath, Somerset. When he died, his wife Mary took over the family business. On July 21, 1791, she took her son into partnership, and the business became known as M. Lambe & Son, selling, in addition to the commodities noted on the above token, quality candles and candle molds. Together, Mary Lambe and her son continued to operate the business into the 1800s. "An advertisement from the 21 July 1791 edition of the Bath Chronicle announcing that Mary Lambe had taken her son into partnership:" Source: http://www.yeovilhistory.info/lambe-markes.htm Nos. 35 and 36 Stall Street, which were leased by Mary Lambe in 1797 for M. Lambe & Son Tea-Dealers and Grocers: By Plumbum64 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28052472 I hope you enjoy the post! Please feel free to post your own coins & comments.
Thanks! It was too nice to pass up, especially in attractive mint-state condition. Although there are actually a surprising number of MS graded examples.
Nice! Is that the penny or halfpenny type? Mrs. Lambe and son produced a prodigious quantity of token coinage. I believe there is one type that features a tea-chest complete with Chinese characters on it. Pretty cool.
Thanks for the kind words. Actually these tokens (especially the halfpenny type) are quite common and usually can be had for a good deal under $100.
I have it cataloged as a half penny but now I am wondering if that is correct. Will have to pull it out tomorrow.
It's interesting, that although the halfpenny types are more common, it almost seems like the dies were intended for penny-sized flans. I see a number of halfpennies with flans that are just a bit tight for the die.
The 17th through early 19th century saw a dearth of regal coinage - as though the establishment was more engrossed in social gathering etc than supplying the population with coinage to promote the growth of industry - the Industrial Revolution was underway in Britain and manufacturing saw particular advancements in production fueling the economy. The government took a lax attitude to creating coinage which is why private establishments created their own token coinage in bronze, occasionally silver and in a few select cases - gold. Inasmuch as this was a cause of discontent in Britain, her recently independent former colonies felt the same discontent with money issuance - colonial money in America was a contributing cause to what would become the American Revolution - the government in Britain never really addressed the money issue in the colonies which beginning with the Massachusetts-Bay coinage in 1652 would culminate in the colonial paper money issues in the 18th century which the crown condemned wholeheartedly. One of my personal fave issues of the early 19th century is the Birmingham Workhouse threepence weighing in at a hefty 2.5 ounces - struck by the industrial revolutionary marvel of Matthew Boulton's steam powered coin presses. As big as this monster is - the largest sized piece that circulated in Britain - there were plans for a bronze sixpence weighing 5 ounces that was the approximate dimensions of a hockey puck. Of the latter about a couple of dozen were struck but plans for issuance were tabled.
Thanks for this added information. I hadn't really thought of the monetary problem also being a contributing factor in the American Revolution. That is a monstrous token! The closest I can come to it is one of Boulton's massive "cartwheel" twopenny coins, and even that still falls far short! GREAT BRITAIN Time of George III, 1760-1820 CU “Cartwheel” Two Pence (40.9mm, 56.64g, 6h) Dated 1797. Soho mint, Handsworth, England Obverse: GEORGIUS III · D:G · REX. incuse on raised rim; laureate and draped bust of King George III right Reverse: BRITANNIA. 1797 incuse on raised rim; seated figure of Britannia facing left, trident in left hand, olive branch in raised right hand, shield bearing Union flag resting on left, sea behind with ship on left, mint name below shield References: Numista 1287 Mintage: 722,000 Dark brown patina with hints of iridescence. A significant shortage of copper coinage in late 18th century Britain led to the proliferation of privately manufactured token pennies as well as outright counterfeit coins. In order to alleviate this shortage, the British government authorized Matthew Boulton, a Birmingham inventor and engineer, to strike copper pennies and twopence coins at his state-of-the-art mint in Soho. Boulton introduced a number of innovations intended to discourage counterfeiting. The coin itself was made to contain its face value in copper – a full two ounces for the twopence pieces. The coins were struck using a retaining collar to maintain perfectly round edges. And finally, the distinctive thick raised rims were designed to minimize wear on the coins’ surfaces during circulation. All in all, some 722,000 twopence pieces were minted by Boulton; but the sheer size and weight of the coins made them too unwieldy for general use, and after a few years production was ceased. I do edge you out, though, with this massive Ptolemaic "Hockey Puck" drachm. PTOLEMY II, 284-246 BC AE Drachm (43.29mm, 72.67g, 1h) Struck 266-261 BC. Egypt, Alexandria mint Obverse: Horned head of Zeus Ammon right, wearing taenia with basileion Reverse: ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ on l. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ on r.; two eagles with closed wings standing left on two thunderbolts; monograms between legs References: CPE B241 Warm brown surfaces. A massive piece, over two and a half ounces of bronze.
