Next club meeting Monday 7th June 2010

The second part of the evening will be devoted to the annual display competition, with the winner being awarded the Michael Broome Memorial Trophy for 1 year. The competition is open to all members and can cover any topic connected to numismatics. So to all members please have a go and enter a display. Those that do a display will receive an entry into a raffle, the prize being a bottle of wine.

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

May Meeting

The first token that Bryce showed us was a City of Oxford School token which was very nicely depicted as an Ox crossing a ford, with the City arms in the background

Moving on to the subject area, we shown two Pub tokens from the George Inn (landlord Thomas Justice) and the Phoenix Inn (landlord James Smith), both in Hartley Whitney, and both still exist, though the George is now the Lamb. The George token showed George and the Dragon on the obverse with TJ (the landlords initials) inscribed on the reverse. The Phoenix token had a phoenix on the obverse which is taken from the Seymour family arms (of Henry VIII’s third wife fame!), who lived at nearby Elvetham Hall.

It was then explained that Pub tokens originated in the 17th Century and were predominantly copper or brass. There were also a fair number of paper checks/cheques issues. An example of these paper cheques is from the Kings Head Inn, Sidwell Street Exeter. This was dates 1855 and was inscribed ‘3d Yellow Metal Cheques for Skittle Alley, Bagatelle etc. Most paper cheques do not mention games directly, in fact of the approx 20,000 different issues, only 750 do


We were then shown a number of examples of Cheques and tokens which included the below:

It is generally believed that a 3d cheque/token may have included a 1d game as advertised and a 2d pint of ale.

Other games advertised included Dominoes, Knock’emdown, Chess, Backgammon and Billiards. There is also an example of a token from the Greyhound in Loughborough which advertised the local cricket ground; the speaker surmised that this may have been used to sell pavilion seats. As well as the traditional table and board games, pub tokens were also used for card games. These included a token for the Green Man Inn, Coleman Street (landlord J Pritchard). This has a reverse showing a laurel and oak wreath, and the value of 2½d crowned, with the legend ‘A Counter 1851’. Other reverses include the Royal Arms incorporated into the design of the Ace of Spades, and a hand holding four cards (3diamonds, 4spades, 5clubs and 6 hearts).

As an interesting aside, it was explained that a deck of playing cards was heavily taxed. A purchaser would pay 6d for the ‘deck’, as well as an additional 2s6d for the Ace of Spades – hence this card is always a lot more decorative than the rest, as this design incorporated the printers name and a statement saying that tax had been paid.

Another tax anecdote involved a pair of dice – in 1804 these would cost a little as 6d, with tax of £1! This was due to the fact that all dice games except backgammon fell under the Lotteries Act rather than gambling, and as such the duty was significantly higher.

The twenty-six members in attendance showed their appreciation in the usual manner, and a lively Q&A session followed. We thank Bryce for a most interesting talk.

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