Baldwin's Offered a Spence Halfpenny Token Depicting Lord George Gordon in October 2023
On October 8, 2023, the London dealer Baldwin's described a Thomas Spence halfpenny token (1795/6) bearing the bust of Lord George Gordon, offered in its October 11, 2023 auction with an estimate of £120-160. The post traces Gordon's life from the Gordon Riots of 1780 to his conversion to Judaism and his last years in Newgate prison.
Correction (Oct 13, 2026): We rewrote the headline, summary and body to match the source. We removed unsupported material, including claims of discussion in collector communities, Spence's biography and politics, economic hardship as a cause of the riots, the token's copper alloy, Gordon's mental state and a supposed shift in how radical tokens are valued, and stated the lot details (the October 11, 2023 auction, lot 1273 and its estimate) and the date of the post as the source gives them. The previous headline was "Thomas Spence 1795 Halfpenny: How Radical Tokens Became Numismatic Historical Documents."
This article is based on a blog post published by the London dealer A.H. Baldwin (Baldwin's) on October 8, 2023. It describes one late-18th-century token offered in the firm's auction of October 11, 2023, and the life of the man it depicts.
The Token
The piece is lot 1273: a Thomas Spence halfpenny token of London, Holborn (1795/6), with a draped bust of Lord George Gordon facing left and a four-line legend on the reverse. The edge reads "SPENCE DEALER x IN x COINS x LONDON x." It measures 30.25 mm and weighs 10.3 g, and is catalogued as DH 782.
Baldwin's grades it Good Extremely Fine, with considerable original lustre and much reflection, and calls it rare. The estimate is £120-160. It comes with a Spinks ticket from around 2008, which Baldwin's says makes it very likely ex F S Cokayne Collection.
Lord George Gordon and the Riots of 1780
Gordon, son of the 3rd Duke of Gordon, is best known for giving his name to the Gordon Riots of 1780. The date on the token refers to the riots.
On June 2, he led a crowd of some 50,000 people to the Houses of Parliament to present a petition against Catholic Emancipation. The crowd threatened to storm Parliament but dispersed. Over the next few days, rioters burned Catholic chapels and several prisons and attempted to storm the Bank of England. The army was eventually brought in, and some 450 people were killed or wounded before peace was restored.
Gordon was charged with High Treason for his role in instigating the riots and sent to the Tower of London. A few months later he was acquitted on the grounds that he had no "Treasonable Intent."
Conversion and Last Years
In 1787 Gordon converted to Judaism, took the name Yisrael bar Avraham Gordon and moved to Birmingham. The next year he was sentenced to five years in Newgate prison for defaming the French ambassador.
In prison he lived as an Orthodox Jew. He grew a long beard, as shown on the token, and put on tzitzit and tefillin daily. He fasted when Jewish law prescribed it and celebrated the Jewish holidays. The prison authorities supplied him with kosher meat and wine and Sabbath challah, allowed him a minyan on the Sabbath and let him nail a mezuzah to his cell door. The Ten Commandments hung on his wall.
Shortly after his release, Gordon caught typhoid, which had been spreading through Newgate, and died. He was buried not in a Jewish cemetery but in the Anglican burial ground of St. James's Piccadilly, which Baldwin's describes as "detached" because he had been excommunicated.
The Sale
Baldwin's said the auction would take place on October 11, 2023, at its premises at 399 Strand, London, with bidding in person, by phone or online through the company's website.
Source: Baldwin's, "The Gordon Riots of 1780" (October 8, 2023).
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