GREAT BRITAIN LONDON Conder token 1795 taxidermist
$95.00
GREAT BRITAIN, MIDDLESEX, LONDON, token, 1795, Obverse: animals, THE KANGUROO THE ARMADILLO THE RHINOCEROS, Reverse: T. HALL CITTY ROAD NEAR FINSBURY SQUARE LONDON 1795 THE FIRST ARTIST IN EUROPE FOR PRESERVING BIRDS BEASTS &, Edge: plain, copper, 30mm, halfpenny, DH313, cleaned VF
1 in stock
Description
The almost full weight copper tokens of 1787-95 were subjects of an early catalog attempt by James Conder, which is why the series is nicknamed “Conder tokens.”
In England tokens started coming into use in the 16th century. Scotland and Ireland followed suit. Since the coinage was unified throughout the country there was not as much need for jetons in the counting houses to keep track of various currencies. But the neglect of the copper level of the market made for blooms of tokens in the 17th 18th and 19th centuries. Each bloom was suppressed by the government which promised to do better and by the mid-19th century finally succeeded. Token use having become normalized continued here and there into the 1980s.
A token is used like a coin but is not a coin. Rather it stands for a coin without the value of the coin. Maybe its copper but says its value is the same as a silver coin. Usually tokens were made privately but sometimes governments got involved.
The word “exonumia” is used to describe all kinds of things that are “like” coins but are not coins. I wrote a blog post on that subject. Basic categories: 1. used like a coin but not issued by a national government 2. looks like a coin but not made for spending 3. other things that we are interested in.
