Next club meeting - Monday 6^th. October 2008.

• Repent at Leisure: The Adoption of 500 Silver in 1920 by Graham Dyer

Meetings are held at the Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, commencing at 7.00 p.m.

This month’s meeting was entitled “A Token Tour of Essex” by Stuart Adams. To start, Stuart showed various maps showing how Essex became gradually more connected to London because of the growth of industry. These included:

• A map of Essex in 1830 delineated by the the Thames, the North Sea, the Stour and the Lea.
• A map showing the encroachment of London.
• A map showing the growth of industry and housing over 100 years.

Another slide showed the issuing localities of 17th century tokens – quite dense and evenly distributed throughout the County.

Next we came to some of the tokens themselves, including a token for pyrities pickers from Walton on the Naze and one from Frinton, issued by John Rice. Another map showed issuing localities for the 18th Century. Here there were considerably fewer than before being only eleven in total. A particularly nice token was one given for looking after clocks. Stuart showed some 19th Century tokens, mainly from Walthamstow. However one mid 19th Century token was issued by TD Nunn. No information was available, so Stuart put out an advertisment asking for information and was contacted by the grand daughter of the issuer.

Amongst other tokens were a larger advertising token for Marlborough and Co. There were also several Railway passes issued by the Great Eastern Railway for use at Parkston Quay in Harwich. A shilling fruit pickers token for Aldham was shown and transport tokens up to 1952. A Monte Francis tram token for a fete at Colchester was shown.

The Co-Op starting in 1867, when it was known as the Chelmsford Star Co-operative Society issued tokens. Some were made in Brass and these are quite rare as they were called in in 1919. Some were buried under the Foundation stone. Stuart also showed an Epping District Coop Society token for bread and an Earls Colne Coop Society token for 1d.

There were also some countermarked issues, including a Bank of England 5 shilling countermarked with Chelmsford and a Cartwheel penny stamped with several names. Public Houses also issued tokens and Stuart showed one from the George Inn in Woodford. In 1908 the introduction of the Allotment act and tokens were issued to allow people passage, also some people issued dividend tokens, Stuart showed one by A. Morris.

Stuart finished the formal talk by telling us about his investigations into Stratford Market before it closed. It turns out that several of the stallholders used to issue tokens and Stuart was able to learn about this from the stallholders before they moved on.

All this was followed by an informal Q&A session where Stuart was asking members about their interests! An encyclopaedic tour undertaken by an expert guide, thank you Stuart.

Stuart had also brought along a ringed coin specially prepared for the fortieth anniversary of the Havering Club, for more details see Haverings website.

Club Subscriptions

Will members yet to renew their subscription please see Peter at the next meeting or send same to the club secretary. Membership cards for newly paid up members are included with this issue of the newsletter.

Past Events

30 years ago, Mr. H. Dawson gave a talk on “Something on Coins”.

20 years ago, Alison Barker spoke on “Love Tokens”

10 years ago, Barry Greenaway gave a talk on “They Call Them Tokens”

Baldwins Coin Auctions - 11, Adelphi Terrace 23-24^th September

DNW - Official Coinex Auction 24^th September

Coinex at Earls Court Conference Centre - 26-27^th September