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Hi everyone. Well I have allot of Tokens. Trade private, political all sorts. When I saw this one I was curious. Now I wanted it for many years. So I tried to see if the notes were real or just a bunch of notes. To my surprise the music coincides with a song most of the old timers knew and middle age. I don't know what there teaching in school anymore but it's called God Save The King. Now it's not on the top ten but the music goes to a song we used to sing sometimes in school . It's the music to My Country Tis of Thee. Remember that . It's very patriotic. We want it every day in class. The Token is 30 mm 14-8 grams. It says God Save The King. Below it there is a crown all encircled by the notes to God Save The King. It was done by William Forster. It says on the reverses Wm Forster Violin Tenor, and Violincello maker No 348 Strand London. Strand London was a stretch of stores that made these wonderful instruments. If you ever get a chance to go to a quartet go. It's some of the most beautiful music you can hear. You can put your head back and close your eyes. I use to go when I could. I will start once again. Now I put a bid on it to my surprise many showed up. It's not rare or scarce. It shows you these tokens will surprise you all the time. I looked at it again on the reverses it was the shield of King George The III. I wonder how many picked that up. Well I paid a reasonable price. And I was glad I did. I had seen it in the books but now I could own it. I did. I started to do the research and never figured that those notes were the real thing. England is very good at adapting. When the King died and a Woman took the Throne naturally it was changed to God Save The Queen. This is just another reason I love these tokens. A sorry for everyone. Maybe we can change the words to God Save The ANA. Hope you enjoyed reading this as enjoyed writing it. Enjoy. Mike.
My next blog has been known to cause controversy in other venues, i.e. NGC blogs. Not only controversy but some people get downright angry. Let’s see how it goes here. Below you will see my example of a Dan Carr Token. This particular specimen is a 1917 Peace Dollar with the original design from artist/sculptor Anthony De Francisci. It is in the original high relief as well as the “broken sword” reverse. There are a couple of facts that I need to discuss now.
Hi everyone. Last week I wrote a blog on a very great token of a very important man in the history of the reign of King Henry the VIII. One of my favorites. Not really. Now.I figured I would write a blog on the famous Soho mint. Little did I know this went on for page after page covering all aspects of the mint. It has tremendous history. The Soho mint was officially opened in 1788. It was designed by Matthew Boultin. He had asked permission of King George the III . He was granted an opening ten years later in 1788. It's were these pieces of art in copper were made.. It's located in Handsworth West Midlands England. It has eight steam powered presses that would make 70 to 84 per hour. Big difference from today.. Now the presses were patented by Boultin himself.. In one of the pictures you can see the tokens or coins falling into the basket. Now before we go any further he did make coins for England. Spain and the people of the French revolution. He had the best die makers Britain had to offer. The token on the bottom of the mint was done by Peter Kempson.one of the many great die makers of his time.I can't list them all just to many. They made coins for the colonies as well Now with all kinds counterfeiting came in as a problem. Britain took up a great fight against this as did George the III. In one of the photos you can see Soho by the red line. Not very well but it's there. He used weights to capture these people and it worked. The counterfeiting was rampant during the the 1770 before the mentioned opened up. If you were caught you died that simple. In 1771 a woman was caught. She was hung outside the Newgate Prison another great token. After she was hung she was burned at the stake. Might be a good idea today.Well it's a small world. When I first started collecting these I was directed to one Bill Mckivor. This man studied them and would go to Britain to buy them. He has sold thousands. . Saw a token I liked he said send a check to me. Well a few days later I received my token. I didn't mail the check yet. He said don't worry I know I will get it . He helped me allot about these tokens. What I didn't know he was a very good friend of Richard G. Dick Doty . Senior Numismatic Curator at the Smithsonian institution. He passed away on the second of June2013. He also loved the tokens
Who Was Cardinal Thomas Worsley? Well he was a very educated man. He received his degree at Oxford in 1530 at the age of 15.. Now this is not a repost. It's been a while I think it fell off. And we have new members. This is a Conder Token of the Cardinal. Some of you have heard about him in the T.V. series The Tudors . First don't believe everything you see in the movies. Remember that. He was Archbishop of York, and Chancellor of England to King Henry the VIII. One of my favorites. Not really. Worsley held many titles. He built many beautiful homes and castles. He was born in Ipswich in 1473.. His claim to fame was the Chancellor simply because he had the ear of Henry and he basically ruled England. King Henry and Worsley were the best of friends. Did he take a few pounds for himself.? What Chancellor didn't but one. Saint Thomas Moore. Also best of friends with the King. For that he had his head cut off. Not really he would not join the Church of England. King Henry's church. He had many riches land many homes. Now I said don't believe what you see in the movies or T.V. shows. In the Tudors King Henry turns against Worsley. Has him out in the tower of London and commits suicide. Far from the truth. Yes he was arrested because he did not get the divorce for his King. The Pope turned him down. Worsley argued that if the Pope granted this England would remain Catholic.. The Pope has grandfather them before. On his journey to hear his charges he came down with dysentery and passed on in Leicester at the age of 57. The British are known for their record keeping. He was surrounded by his supporters at his death and spoke his final words"I see the matter against me how it is framed.But if I had served God so diligently as I have the King maybe he would not have given me the gray hairs". Then he passed. He was accused of everything but never convicted of anything. The Mint cried at the news of his death.. He was born in Ipswich the same town as Conder the man who started cataloguing these wonderful tokens. So in this day and age instead of making movies of non fiction than fiction they distort history.. Now the light was working when I received it and you can see we have one now without the lamp.I wanted you to see the token as it is today red brown and still looks like the raw token. And in the light you can see the great detail. As a matter of fact Conder had a statue of him made. The reverse shows Worsly's gate at Ipswich. The gate was built in his memory and to protect the city. Now I haven't done a blog on Conder tokens for a long time. Once in a while I will post a blog on some you may like. Thanks.Mike
Hi everyone. Well I haven't done a token in a while so I went to my blog book I pre write them and found this simple but very important token. Now it's a half penny made by the Royal mint. That's right a token made by the Royal mint. Not Soho but in England at the big mint. Why would they do that.? Well in about 1791 and 1792 Britain realized they were running very low on these tokens. Then people used them constantily. Now if they were made any were made anywhere else they would get only sixty an hour. Certainly not enough to keep up with demand.. That's why the Royal Mint made them. Now if they were going to make these they wanted a good die sinker and designer. It didn't take long to chose Peter Kempson. One of the many masters of this type of coinage.. I believe with no disrespect to the others he was the best without doubt. So he was called to make this token and one for South wales.. So he put the Prince of Wales on the obverse who would become George the IV. The reverse depicts the crest of the office of Prince of Wales. Then he did something to this token that was different. He raised different points in the token . Not a lot but a very slight dot changed the texture of it. Given it a wonderful feel and a terrific look. Only Peter Kempson would do this. Now there are thousands of different tokens is it possible someone else did this also? Of course. Now it weighs 3.6 gr and is 21.6 mm. To me the perfect size to carry. It was accepted at once by the people. I looked for mintage but could not find them. Those measurements are mine. When I can't find it I use my tools to get them. Now this is not a long blog but an important one no less. To think they were running out of pennies it immediately hit the economy and it picked it l up. Yes this Farthing made a differance. . Now we talk a value I know it's important to most of you. In a MS condition depending on the condition believe me when I say you will make your money back. I never use dollars when I write about these. I have seen most of them and they wouldn't make an A/U. More like an XF. I think Kempson did a great job and this small token has an impact on a country's economy. I hope you enjoyed this. Thanks dor.reading. Pat.
Matthew Bolton was a general manufacturer in Birmingham. In 1762 he bought and rebuilt some works at Soho on the outskirts of the town, with a Mr. Fothergill as a partner. In 1767 he became acquainted with James Watt who settled at Soho in 1769, and a little later became a partner in the firm of Boulton and Watt. In 1773 Boulton added an Assay office to his ordinary business. The works were enlarged, and a coining mill was erected in 1788. This became the Soho Mint, producing many remarkable coins until 1850 when it was dismantled and the machinery sold to Ralph Heaton and Sons of Birmingham who was engaged in striking money.
Well it's nice to be back. Years ago I came across a token I never saw before. It was called a Hard Times Token. I liked it. It seemed to be political and made before the civil war. It was a low grade but we buy what we like. I said someday I might find a real nice one. That happened at Davidson's auction. I saw my token and it looked real good. So I placed a bid. Clicked on the token and read about it. It was a MS 64 RB and down in the left corner it said Newman! It also said special holder. That I did not know. It was Newman's special label. So i said I like it. And won the auction. The Hard Times Tokens were very political and loaded with satire. They were privately made. The label at the bottom L18- 32 deals with Jackson and his Vice President Martin Van Buren. It seems that Jackson wanted to close the the Bank of the U.S. On 8/15/1836 he wrote a paper stating that Banks and people who received public money for public lands would have to take silver and gold. The banks started printing dollars and printing. This failed terribly.Banks failed and Business closed. We were in turmoil and headed for our first depression. So what we did was make these Hard Time Tokens. This token is called the Executive Experiment it is rated one of the top one hundred medals and tokens. It also says on the obverse Fiscal Agent.. The date 1837and has a turtle. walking very slowly indicating the economy. It also has a box on top that said SUB Treasury. Jackson's idea was being torn apart. The reverse states Illustrious I follow in The Steps of My Predecessor. How bad can this get. Now these tokens were searched out and cataloged by Russell Rulau. . He found them kept looking and found more. It's like our red book. This token is in the redbook. Now we did not get back on our feet till 1844. It was a very bad time for our country even dealing in trade. But we came through it. These tokens are loaded with history. And they don't hold back on what they thought. If you haven't seen them take a look. There is so much of our history. The token dealing with American Slavery just sold for seventy thousand dollars. Now this is the first token I ever owned by Mr. Newman. I very happy to have one in my collection. It also came with a typed notice about were and when it was sold. I mean Newman's label is enough but this is important also. I checked the population. This token there are three in RB. MS 64 and only five graded higher. No I didn't pay millions for it. Many people don't click on the coin at the auction. They didn't see Newman's name. So I was lucky with the price. And everything related to this token. I finally got the token i wanted and it was owned by Mr.Newman. Probably the greatest collector and teacher of coins and tokens. It will be a nice addition to my collection. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope you picked something up. Pat.
I have always had a fascination with coins, tokens, and replicas. When I was a kid I had a Huge novelty penny that was almost big enough to be a coaster for a drink. And when I was a teen someone found a strange token when doing some yard work, and they gave it to me. Need to find out if I still have those somewhere. I have always collected little things, like wheat pennies, foreign coins I found at work (which I have a ton of, working in a college town for many years), and random old or 90% silver coins and two silver certificate Blue ink pre-war paper dollars. But with recent years, talking to my dear friend David Smock, and with the West Point Quarters emerging, I find myself now searching for them like crazy. I have been luck enough to find 22 Lowell fresh from the mint quarters, but still on the look out for the others that are out. And now my interests have grown to odder things. I am on the look out for a novelty coins. the Area 51 Alien 2004 Quarter.
My friends how are you. I Just wrote a Journal on this token not because of the token but the label has been wrong for years. Those of you who remember I had a disagreement with NGC before. It took three months three countries and Nobels auction in New Zealand to a library in England. It did make me physically sick. But after they received the fax from the English library. NGC said send it back slabed it graded it a MS 64 and I had won.. Turns out four were made. And it was of Queen Victoria. Now if you enlarge the picture of the label it tells you nothing. Not even how to look it up. So i searched the net and found a dealer selling it stating it was made in Philadelphia. Now We have gone to far. So I called NGC and spoke to a very nice woman. She stated that the information was found in the Red Book. I said no. That's all wrong. It's in the colonial section it doesn't belong there. Q. David Bowers even said it never circulated here it was a collection piece. . There are others like it but at least put the proper information so people have a reference point. Well it says it's a Conder token and it was made in England I said all that information doesn't mean anything on the label. You have a founding father his first coin or token and it doesn't say anything. So after a long talk we agreed to disagree. I emailed Q. David Bowers. He got right back to me and wants to speak to the person at NGC I said I will supply here with your number. Mean while Mr. Bowers emailed the other authors who worked on that part of the book. I simply said we can one take it out. Or two out the proper information for next year. We're it was made G.Britain D&H 307b Middlesex The Franklin Press.that's all were looking for. It seems small but what if you received a coin back with the wrong information would you keep it or send it back. I sent mine back and they are refusing to correct it with the right information. Now I like my coins and tokens label right thats all you would think that I was trying to change the world. I left out there resons. because it would be embarrassing I could not believe what I was hearing. I will stay with this and have everyone get the proper credit mostly the label with the right information. They have it They use the proper book all the time. Why not this part of history? It's very important the correct information is on every token and coin. How else will I tell one from the other. I will keep you posted. This is not a small thing. There are allot of important author's working on the solution. Thanks for reading In will keep you updated. Pat
Hi everyone. Well I thought it was time for a special token. Newgate Prison. It has another name Hell on earth. That's what it was like. Now this prison was built in 1188 and closed in 1902. Now I wrote about this prison almost a year ago. This particular token was done by P. Kempson. There were a few made but if you were to compare it to the others the quality just stands out. Now seven hundred years is a very long time for any building. Yes is was rebuilt many times but the big renovation came after the great fire of London in 1666. It was located on the corner of Newgate and and Bailey Street in the heart of London. The pictures below are just a sample of the hundreds they had. The first one I picked was the hanging of the prisoners. I believe there are three. But there was one with six. I wanted to show you hell on earth as it truly was. I got by the copyright of the first one but they nailed me on the ones showing the drawings of life inside. I got one more and that was it. This prison can not be described in words. You would have to use your imagination. Over crowding all sorts of epidemics. . I think most looked to be hanged to escape this form of living. I mentioned the hangings at first they were done inside but that changed in the 1700's when they moved them outside by the left door. The streets were packed with people trying to watch. Hell on earth. I Now why did they make this token. Simple.they wanted to show all sorts of buildings in England and you can't leave this out. From the outside the prison looks like a normal building. The one after this was built to discourage people from committing crimes.. There is a picture of it down below. There also is a token of that one. But this was the original.. Now I could not write everything about this hell. I said before just think of the most hated place you could be. In my last blog I refused to list everything that went on in there for a good reason. Remember your talking about seven hundred years. Yes renovations but they still lives the life that it was like when it opened. This is what a token can tell you. Good things and bad. You would not even know about Newgate if they didn't make the token. Tokens tell stories. Yes you have to do research and find pictures. Then you tell the story it told you.. So now I will leave the short blog leaving out most of the seven hundred years. There is allot of history behind this token and this is a blog. I don't think you would enjoy the history to much. But at least you get a feeling of one of the many reasons they made these works of art. It's a country's history. Just like ours. I hope you get a better understanding about these tokens. They kept a country out of bankruptcy that in itself is remarkable. So thanks for reading I hoped you picked something up. Enjoy . PatBibliography My knowledge my words.P S. Enlarge the pictures you will see more.
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