Next club meeting Monday 1^st September 2008.

• Subject - A Token Tour of Essex 17th – 20th Century By by Stuart Adams.

Meetings are held at the Abbey Baptist Church. Entrance off Abbey Square.

Meeting commences at 7.00pm.

Summer Social

The Summer Social has unfortunately been cancelled. This is due in part to the small response from members and in some part to the cost of organising insurance for the event. For next season we hope to hold the Summer Social at a member’s house.

Seventeen members turned up for the first meeting of the Season. Our speaker got caught in the one-way system in Reading and was late arriving. So the first part of this meeting was ably filled in (once again) by Michael Gouby who gave a short presentation on the latest varieties in the Victorian copper penny series. These included:

Then, to finish off we had our delayed speaker John Roberts-Lewis, who gave a talk on Canadian Tokens. The first settlement by the French was in the early 17th century. After the American War of Independence many loyalists and their Mohawk allies moved North to Canada. By 1810 the shortage of small coinage was seriously hampering trade so in 1813 the first tokens appeared. Some had the initial H, which would indicate that they were by Halliday but the quality was not always up to his standard. John then showed a variety of tokens, the earliest from Nova Scotia and tended to weigh 5/6 of the weight of English halfpennies which would equate to the metal value of worn coins. Patriotic emblems reflected the views of the issuers. Many were issued by well known members of the community, some were local copies – called evasions and often lightweight. The Canadian militia acquitted themselves quite well. Some tokens showed Brock and Broke, both heroes of the War of 1812 between the US and Britain. In 1817 the British Parliament passed a bill prohibiting tokens in the UK therefore Birmingham looked to Canada. Permission was obtained to strike a number of tokens, many more were produced unofficially – many lightweight – many more halfpennies than pennies.

Tokens now appeared in Upper Canada. John showed a selection and named issuers and mentioned status (official or otherwise) then showed ‘tiffin’ tokens (issued by a trader called Tiffin) which were accepted though lightweight and unofficial. These were copied in North America in even lighter weight and poor execution so that the Banks would only accept them at scrap value, not face value. Next John showed Blacksmith’s tokens – very crude but indicated the poor state of official coinage, though well struck official Bank tokens were available. Permission was granted for these, provided the issue was shared among Banks. They were struck by Boulton and Watt. Next came a selection of Bouquet sous – mostly unofficial apart from those struck by a Bank or Montreal – these were popular in French Canada. Next came official tokens/coinage with portraits of Victoria, culminating in 1856, just two years before the official coinage issue of 1858. There are further tokens for New Brunswick with Victoria on one side and a ship on the reverse. Tokens were mostly struck at 150 to the dollar as in North America. Questions were taken after the talk.

Thank you to John (and Michael) for very interesting talks.

Will members yet to renew their subscription please see Peter at the next meeting or send same to the club secretary. Membership cards will be sent shortly to paid-up members.

Future Events.

Midland Coin Fair, National Motorcycle Museum – 10^th August

Croydon Coin Auction, United Reformed Church Hall – 2^nd September

London Coins Windsor Room, Grange Bracknell Hotel – 6^th & 7^th September

Past Events

• Ten years ago Gavin Scott gave a talk on "Framed Coins"
• Twenty years ago Dr. Metcalf gave a talk on coins from the Dark Ages