THE TRADERS TOKENS OF DERBYSHIRE, DESCRIBED AND ILLUSTRATED.

BY LLEWELLYNN JEWITT, F. S. A.

&c. &c. &c.

ONE of the most interesting branches of Numismatic science, but at the same time one of the least studied, is that of the Traders Tokens which have from time to time been issued in our country. Coins--the currency of nations are hoarded up and studied, and constantly referred to in illustration of historical facts, or as corroborations of doubtful points, and their value, admitted on all hands, cannot too highly be estimated. They tell but, however, of Princes and of Nationalities, not of the people. Those of Greece and Rome-tell of events, of changes, and of wars, and become, when properly studied, a complete epitome of the history of the great nations to which they belong. Those of our country, however, have not that recommendation, they become simply a matter of regal chronology. From the Norman Conquest to the present time-from the time of the inscription of "PILLELM REX,” to that of "VICTORIA REGINA"not one event does an English coin record; not one national trait does it exhibit; and not one thing connected with the people does it illustrate. Not so with the Traders Tokens. Issued by the people, they tell of the people, and become imperishable records of that most important estate of the realm. Though they tell not, as do their regal brethren, of proud titles and of royal and national greatness and splendour, they tell what states would indeed be poor without— of the industry and occupation of the people; of their customs and modes of life; of their local governments; of their guilds and companies; their trades, their costume, and their homes. Pity it is that these interesting and reliable records are confined to two periods alone of our national history, but it is well that the earliest of these periods is one of the most interesting and important to us as a nation; and one in which every scrap of knowledge which we can glean respecting the home-life and the manners and customs of the people peculiarly becomes of historical importance.

Traders tokens contain records of places and persons nowhere else to be had-of trades and professions which have fallen into disuetude —of ancient modes of spelling the names of places and localities otherwise not obtainable—of heraldic bearings-signs--costume— domestic utensils-manufactures-and events. They supply links in the broken chain of historical and topographical investigation, and are of no little service in tracing the descent of families and property. The allusions to ancient customs which they frequently present are highly interesting, whilst they serve most forcibly to illustrate the productions of the old writers, and the quaint ballads of the people. Surely these are reasons sufficient to induce these interesting relics to be collected, and not only collected but carefully studied; and are

also sufficiently weighty to induce me to give a few pages on the subject in the "RELIQUARY "-my present object being to describe and illustrate those struck in the county of Derby.

From the earliest period of the Anglo-Saxon dominion, a want of smaller coins than pence had been gradually and increasingly felt, and this gave rise to the issue, from time to time, of spurious, or rather base coins, to supply the deficiency; as it was found that the smaller pieces of halfpence and farthings when made of silver, were so small as to be unfit for general use among the mass of the rough-handed labouring population, and the pennies, when broken up by the cross, into halves and quarters, were even worse than useless. In the reign of Edward VI. the issue of base metal, which had no intrinsic value, and consequently was a false monetary medium, gave rise to considerable disaffection; while in that of Mary, the most gross and cruel frauds were practised on the poor people by this means. Under Elizabeth, in 1561, a coinage of pure silver, in three halfpence and three farthing pieces took place. These, with the sixpence and threepence, were distinguished by a full-blown rose behind the head on the field of the coin, which gave rise to the well-known satirical allusion of Shakspeare to the prevailing fashion of wearing a rose in some part of the dress

"My face so thin,

"That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose,

"Lest men should say-look, where three farthings goes."

KING JOHN. Act 1, Scene 1.

These coins of Elizabeth were sterling and determinate, and the base metal which had been in previous use, was declared to be no longer current. The refining of silver was however considered to be a very unhealthy occupation, and Agarde--that fine old Derbyshire antiquary-gives the following quaint mode of cure of the "refiners sickness," as a complaint to which they were subject was called. He says, "The Esterlinges, who being Germans, brought up in the mines there of silver and copper, were, by her Majesty's order, for the refining of our base coins, brought hither by Alderman Lodge, with whom I was familiarly acquainted. This he told me, that most of them, in melting, fell sick to death with the savour, so as they were advised to drink from a dead man's skull for their recure. Whereupon he with others, who had the oversight of this work, procured a warant from the Council to take off the heads upon London Bridge, and make cups thereof, out of which they drank, and found some relief, although most of them died." Yet despite the issue of these small pieces, the want of halfpence and farthings was so much felt, that the keepers of alehouses, and the chandlers, grocers, mercers, vintners, and other traders, were impelled to the issue of private tokens of lead, tin, latten, and even leather. These tokens were issued by the traders, and commodities could only be had of them in exchange, so that they were useless as a circulating medium, and caused no end of loss to their unfortunate holders. In 1574, a proposition was made to the Queen to coin halfpence and farthings of base silver, but was rejected.

Proposals were then made to issue copper pledges for halfpence and farthings, and a proclamation forbidding private tokens was prepared, but the project was never carried out, and the Traders tokens still continued. In 1601 and 1602, however, the requirements of the army in Ireland, caused the issue for a time of pence, halfpence, and farthings in copper; and this appears to have revived the idea of copper pledges for England, and pattern types were prepared. Copper tokens were at this time struck by the cities of Bristol, Oxford, and Worcester.

On the accession of James the First, silver pennies and halfpence only were issued, whilst his Scottish coins, the bawbees, bodles, and placks, were utterly useless for England. Afterwards, however, a pattern piece for a copper farthing was prepared, but not issued. A scheme for enriching the King, too good to be unheeded by crafty Royal ears, was made to the monarch, and soon afterwards acted upon, and Royal farthing tokens, weighing six grains each, were issued. To get them into circulation, the farthings were sold by the Crown wholesale, at twenty shillings for twenty-one shillings worth. The license to mint these infamous coins was granted to the then Lord Harrington (of Exton), the King stipulating to receive one-half of the profit every quarter of a year, but afterwards his Majesty, thinking he had made too liberal a bargain, repented, and allowed Lord Harrington £25,000 profit on the 100,000lbs. of farthings, and took to himself the remaining £45,000. The great distributor of these tokens was one Gerard Malyns, who says they are intended to abolish the leaden tokens made by every tapster, chandler, and vintner, and that "they have been found very commodious and necessary for petty commutations," and also that they would be a great advantage to the poor, inasmuch as they would promote charity, by inducing persons to give a farthing who would not give a halfpenny. No doubt it might with equal force have been argued that it would be an injustice to the poor, as holding out a facility to give a farthing where otherwise the donation would have been a halfpenny. Bags containing £20 worth of these tokens were sent to the mayors of different towns for distribution, and the mayors were allowed a profit of two shillings in the pound, while those who bought them had one shilling in the pound. The Mayor of Leicester refused to take them, and a curious correspondence is still extant with regard to his refusal. These farthings caused the utmost dissatisfaction, and are frequently alluded to in the most satirical manner by Ben Jonson, Philip Massinger, Heywood, Taylor the water poet, and other writers of the period. Proclamation after proclamation, enforcing the Royal swindle, and putting down the issue of private tokens, were sent out, but still throughout the kingdom the Traders continued their use. The office for the issue of these tokens was in Lothbury, and the place still bears the name of "Tokenhouse Yard." During the fearful visitation of the Plague, it was usual to paint a red cross over the door of houses infected with that dreadful disease, as a token of its presence, and some wicked wag (so strong was the feeling against their use), one night painted a large red cross over the door of the token house, and

wrote beneath it, "Lord, have mercy upon us, for this house is full of tokens." After the annulling of this office, copper ones of full value were prepared, but the Traders struck their own even more generally than before; and at this period the first Tradesmen's tokens with date (1644) occur. Some of the official tokens to which I have alluded were certainly in circulation, but they are now of extreme rarity.

In 1649, some attempt was made to establish a national farthing, of which pattern pieces are now extant in some collections. Nothing however was done either then or during the Protectorates to supply the want of small coin, although a pattern-piece of the Protector Oliver is known to collectors, and the Tradesmen's tokens continued to increase to a prodigous extent. In 1671, however, the Government announced the intended issue of halfpence and farthings of copper, to supersede the tokens of private traders; and in 1672, a proclamation, prohibiting the making or use of any such pieces was issued, and stringent measures were taken to carry out this prohibition. From this period the issue of Tradesmen's tokens declined, and they ultimately became utterly suppressed.

These few lines, which I have purposely condensed as much as possible, will be sufficient to show how Trader's tokesp took their rise, and it only remains to say, that at the end of the last century and the commencement of the present, they again were issued in consequence of the scarcity of money during the protracted war. What little I have said may not be sufficient to verify Evelyn's words, who, writing in 1697, said, "the tokens which every tavern and tipplinghouse, in the days of anarchy amongst us, presumed to stamp and utter for immediate exchange, as they were passable through the neighbourhood, which, though seldom reaching further than the next street or two, may happily, in after times, come to exercise and busie the learned critic what they should signify, and fill whole volumes with their conjectures," but perhaps may be just sufficient to lead to a more careful study of them, and to a better appreciation of their worth, by those who have as yet been ignorant of their importance.

Of the Tokens issued by Traders in Derbyshire, I have been fortunate enough to get together a list of more than one hundred varieties. Many of these are in my own collection, and for several of the others I am indebted to the labours of my good friends Mr. W. Boyne, and Mr. W. H. Brockett, whose works are of the utmost interest and importance to the collector of these interesting local relics. In Mr. Boyne's recently published volume on the subject,* no less than 9466 varieties of tokens are described, and fresh ones are yet constantly being discovered.

There are no town, corporation, or company pieces connected with the county of Derby, and by far the larger number of pieces are halfpence. Amongst the distinct trades exhibited on the Derbyshire Tokens, as shown on the following list, are those of Mercer, Chandler, Tobacconist, Innkeeper, Pewterer, Haberdasher, Grocer, Butcher,

* Tokens issued in the Seventeenth Century in England, Wales, and Ireland, by Corporations, Merchants, Tradesmen, etc. By William Boyne, F. S. A.

Tallow Chandler, Ironmonger, Blacksmith, Apothecary, Baker, Shoemaker or Cordwainer, Hatter, Dyer, Wool Packer, Sadler, Coffee House Keeper, Gardener, Owners of Coal Mines, and others. The largest number of these trades were then, as now, Innkeepers, Grocers, and Mercers, and there are a large number of tokens on which no distinctive badge, arms, or name of trade occurs. Many contain the arms of the trades which were followed by their issuers, and these are described in the list.

The following is the list with the names of places arranged alphabetically

Obverse-CORNELIAS LAVNDER= In the field, the Mercers Arms.

No inner circle.

HIS

Reverse-IN ALLFRETON. 1663 HALF Within the inner circle.

=

PENY

The Mercers arms are gules a Demi-Virgin couped below the shoulders, proper, vested or, crowned with an Eastern crown, her hair dishevelled and wreathed about her temples with roses of the second, issuing from clouds, and all within an orle of the same proper. In this instance-as indeed as usual on others-the orle of clouds is not shown. On many tokens the bust only of the Virgin is given.

The Launders are an old family in Alfreton and its neighbourhood, and are the same as the other Derbyshire family of Lander.

Obverse-ROBERT

=

Beneath the name a beehive surrounded

WRIGHT by twelve bees.

There is nothing on this heart-shaped token to show what trade was followed by the issuer, but it is not improbable that he might be an Apothecary, as the beehive was frequently used as a device by the followers of that calling.