Baldwin's Previewed 18th-Century Political Token Halfpennies for Its October 11, 2023 Auction

This article is based on a blog post published by the numismatic dealer and auction house Baldwin's on October 9, 2023. The post previewed an auction the company was holding on October 11, 2023; it does not report the results.

A Collection of Late 18th-Century Token Halfpennies

Baldwin's said it would offer a collection of late eighteenth-century token halfpennies at its auction on October 11, 2023. The collection is named the Patrick Deane Collection.

According to Baldwin's, the halfpennies are mostly in mint condition and were last sold at auction at the beginning of the last century.

Tokens Born of a Shortage of Change

According to the post, there was a severe shortage of small copper change in Britain in the 1790s, which made small everyday transactions difficult.

An Anglesey copper mine responded by turning its copper directly into coin, not by copying the regal issues, which carried the death penalty for counterfeiting, but by making its own coins of the same official weight and calling them tokens. The issuer would redeem them in coin of the realm.

The idea spread. Throughout the 1790s, merchants and shopkeepers across Britain had pennies and halfpennies made. The post says that in this decade the coppers in one's pocket would all have been these privately issued coins, and that the varieties numbered in the thousands. Issuers soon realised the advertising potential of the circulating coin. London had hundreds of shopkeepers issuing their own tokens.

Thomas Spence's Political Tokens

Thomas Spence, a schoolmaster from Newcastle, moved to London in 1792 and a couple of years later opened a bookshop in Holborn called the "Hive of Liberty." He was a radical and an active member of the Corresponding Society, which called for "democratic reform" of Parliament. According to the post, he was never found guilty of sedition but spent three short periods in Newgate Gaol.

Recognising the propaganda potential of the circulating coin, Spence made a large number of token halfpennies expressing his social and political views and sold them at his shop. The post says visitors reported seeing thousands of tokens lying in heaps.

Designs described in the post include:

- Two men dancing around a bonfire of burning land deeds, with the legend "The End of Oppression" - An ass loaded with panniers labelled RENTS and TAXES, with the legend "I was an ass to bear the first pair" - A man in shackles with a padlock through his mouth - A civilian being press-ganged into the navy by a sailor, with the legend "British Liberty Displayed" - A French cockerel crowing over a British lion, with the legend "Let Tyrants Tremble at the Crow of Liberty"

The post says Spence was arrested on a charge of High Treason, and that this was very likely because of a token showing the head of George III conjoined with that of an ass.

The Dies Pass to Skidmore

According to the post, in 1796/7, on the brink of bankruptcy, Spence sold his dies to John Skidmore, a token maker and seller nearby on High Holborn. Skidmore continued to strike further combinations for sale and also produced political tokens for the other side.

Other Views and an Anti-Slavery Token

The post says Spence produced by far the majority of political tokens at this time, but there were other views. William Mainwaring, a Birmingham button maker, produced an anti-French satirical token in 1794.

The collection also includes a halfpenny showing a shackled African slave. According to the post, it was made for one of the early anti-slavery groups and issued in the late 1790s; who issued it is not known. Its legend reads "Am I not a man and a brother."

Source: Baldwin's, "Remarkable Collection of 18th Century Political Tokens" (October 9, 2023).