Owner Comments:
Middlesex Skidmore's Churches and Gates DH #659a
Obverse: A view of Newgate NEWGATE . BT. 1670. Ex: JACOBS in small letters
Reverse: The Skidmore cypher - PSCO in script, DEDICATED . TO . COLLECTORS . OF . MEDALS. & COINS . surrounding
Edge: Plain
Diesinker: Benjamin Jacobs
Manufacturer: Paul Skidmore
Weight: 11.66g
Rarity: Common
This gate was once called the Chamberlain's Gate and was one of the four original City gates admitting access to Roman Londinium. During the twelfth century it was replaced by a new structure, known as the New Gate. Newgate is mentioned as a prison in the beginning of the 13th century. Following the Great Fire of London the gate was rebuilt in 1670. The gate was demolished in 1767.
The family business of the token manufacturer Peter Skidmore was an iron foundry at 15 Coppice Row in Clerkenwell with a shop at No. 123, High Holborn. Skidmore realized that there was a market for tokens as the genuine tradesmen's pieces of the time were very keenly collected as they were issued. As well as making genuine tradesmens' tokens to order, he also made pennies and halfpennies for sale to collectors of the time - especially series of Buildings Tokens for London.
One of a set of pieces depicting one of the eleven gates of London.
Atkins: Middlesex 508
Bt. Jerry Bobbe
Ex: Dr. David Spence, Dix Noonan Webb Sale, 11 July 2006