Owner Comments:
Purchased on 4/2/2012.
This piece is listed in Dalton and Hamer as "Scarce" with an estimated mintage of 75-150 pieces. It is an absolutely beautiful brown piece in hand, with gorgeous prooflike liquid fields. The shield on the obverse is reminiscent of the Kentucky Colonial pieces of the early Americas. The Lion on the reverse evokes thoughts of heraldry, and is stunning in his sculpted high relief.
Though listed in Dalton & Hamer among provincial tokens of the 18th Century, by most accounts this piece was struck around 1839 and dated 1794 by a coin dealer named William Till. According to an article in the 1903 British Numismatic Journal, Hamer writes the:
"There are some tokens purporting by the design to have been issued by John Peckham, chemist and druggist, of Slough; and some by W. Till, wine and spirit merchant, of the Red Lion Inn. No mention is made of any of these by Birchall, Conder, Pye, or Sharp, nor are they illustrated in the Virtuoso's Companion, the general opinion being that they were struck for William Till, the coin dealer, probably about the time that he issued the previous specimen. The first numismatic work in which they are recorded is that published by the late D. R. Batty, of Manchester. The writer of the The Bazaar "Notes" describes them, and states that Peckham was a coin collector, and William Till bought his collection. In all probability these tokens were struck to sell to collectors, and bearing, as they do, a fictitious date, W. Till's 1794, J. Peckham's 1795, they cannot be regarded as private tokens."
Regardless of the somewhat shady misleading past, this is a beautiful token with both wonderful designs and great eye appeal.