Owner Comments:
Middlesex Skidmore’s Churches and Gates DH #576
Obverse: A south view of St. Giles Without, Cripplegate ST. GILE'S CRIPPLEGATE . 1547
Reverse: The Skidmore cypher PSCO in script DEDICATED TO COLLECTORS OF MEDALS & COINS . surrounding
Edge: Plain
Diesinker: Benjamin Jacobs
Manufacturer: Paul Skidmore
Weight: 14.16g
Rarity: Common
The original church was founded about 1090 by the first master of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, but burnt down in 1545, the church depicted is its successor and is considered one of the best Gothic buildings in London. The church was completely gutted by a German bomb during the Blitz of WWII. The church is dedicated to St. Giles, patron saint of lepers, beggars and the handicapped and is a Grade I listed building.
In 1620 Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, was married in the church and John Milton was buried in the church.
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 442