Lace Tokens

I acquired a lace token a few years ago, thinking that it was used to pay lacemakers. That may have been the case, sometimes, but when I came to research them I discovered a more complex story.

Tokens were produced in both the 16th and the 17th centuries. To some extent the cause was the same both times, a shortage of small currency. The problem arose with the move of many people into towns, previously there was little use for the less well off to need coins, I think many payments were in kind and of course many people were to a large extent self sufficient or bartered, even if there was little to be had. The shortage of copper coinage meant there was little in the way of small change throughout the whole country so any business transactions were difficult. Lacemakers needed to be paid and they were one of the many trades that suffered. Eventually in the 16th century one or more enterprising individuals produced their own coins soon every prominent tradesman had his own mint producing half-penny and farthing coins. One James Brierley of Olney was a lace-buyer who did this and his coins were inscribed with his initials and that of his wife, “B.I.M” (I = J then). He had a pair of scales on the reverse which indicated a second occupation in his case that of baker! An interesting combination! Another token, produced by one Peter Reynolds from Buckingham, had a piece of lace on it, interestingly he was of Huguenot descent. Two tokens from St Neots have lace pillows depicted on them, with two lacemakers one on each side of the pillow!

The private coinage fell into disuse when in 1672 the Royal Mint started to issue copper coinage. This situation lasted until George III discontinued the making of copper coins in 1775. At this time society was becoming more and more industrialized and people moved away from the country as urban areas grew. There was more and more need for small coins to pay wages but little was available. You may wonder why the minting of copper coins by the mint was stopped. Apparently there was a lot of counterfeit coinage in circulation and this was used first and the shiny new pennies hoarded. But also the counterfeiters collected legal coins and melted them down to make a larger number of thinner coins, making 2 or 3 out of one good coin. Another reason was that there was plenty of small coinage in the larger towns, good or bad, but the smaller provincial towns had very little.

In 1787 a Welsh copper mining company, Parys decided, as they had copper, to make their own, they were located in Anglesey, North Wales so little coinage made its way there. They produced penny and halfpenny tokens, nicely designed and of the correct weight. The legend on the coin said that they were payable in Regal funds (i.e. coin of the realm) by them. Both workers and merchants were very happy with this arrangement. It was also important that Britain now had its own supply of copper. By now the industrial revolution made coins with elaborate designs possible and many people jumped on the bandwagon and by the time of my token, 1795, thousands were being produced. About 95% were halfpennies with only a small number of penny tokens. They even made coins specifically for collectors – nothing new under the sun as they say!

The true coins generally had a lettered edge which stated where they could be redeemed. Tokens were produced for advertising purposes as well as to espouse political views and social problems. By 1795 supply exceeded demand and finally in 1797 the government issued two and one penny coins. The tokens are known in numismatic terms as ‘condor tokens’ after the writer, James Condor, of the first widely used book on them. I suppose today’s equivalent are supermarket coupons and air miles!

My lace token is one of the half a ton that were struck by Moore’s, Lace Manufactory found at No 116, Great Portland Street, Marylebone, London. They were suppliers of muslins, Irish cloth, hose etc., according to the token. On the other side was a lacemaker with her pillow seated under a tree. I wonder if Moore’s supplied lace to their landlord the 3rd Duke of Portland and his wife. It is obvious from this that tokens were not just a provincial device as they had been at the beginning. Thomas Wright in “the Romance of the Lace Pillow” knew of one token in silver. One lace manufactory, Chambers produced one ton of the tokens, they had a similar lady under a tree on the one side but a sheep on the other. Keep your eyes open for more as go around.

Janice Cole