Owner Comments:
Middlesex Skidmore's Churches and Gates DH #671
Obverse: A north view of St. John’s, Southwark ST. JOHN'S . SOUTHWARK . BT . 1732. Ex: JACOBS in small letters
Reverse: The Skidmore cypher - PSCO in script, 1797 below DEDICATED . TO . COLLECTORS . OF . MEDALS. & COINS . surrounding
Edge: Plain
Diesinker: Benjamin Jacobs
Manufacturer: Paul Skidmore
Rarity: Common
The parish of St. John’s was carved out of that of St. Olave’s, Southwark and is one of fifty new metropolitan churches sanctioned by the Act of Queen Anne’s reign. It was built in 1732 and consecrated in 1733. It was partially destroyed by fire in 1843 but was rebuilt in 1845.
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: Surrey 22
Stacks Bowers NYINC Sale, 19 January 2023