Owner Comments:
Middlesex Skidmore’s Churches and Gates DH #634
Obverse: A north east view of St. Martin's Outwich ST. MARTIN . OUTWICH THREADNEEDLE. Ex: JACOBS in small letters and ST. BT. 1540. beneath upside down
Reverse: The Skidmore cypher - PSCO in script DEDICATED TO COLLECTORS OF MEDALS & COINS . surrounding
Edge: Plain
Diesinker: Benjamin Jacobs
Manufacturer: Paul Skidmore
Weight: 11.24g
Rarity: Common
The church stood at the corner of Threadneedle Street and Bishopsgate Street. The church was built in the 1403. The second church was built in 1540 and escaped damage in the Great Fire of 1666. It was badly damaged by fire in 1765 and was eventually taken down in 1795. The building of the new church was then started in 1796 and demolished in 1874 when the parish was merged with St. Helen’s Bishopsgate. A large branch bank now occupies the space.
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 120 pieces - each portraying a well-known church in or around London.
Atkins: Middlesex 487
Bt. Gary Sriro