Owner Comments:
Middlesex Skidmore's Churches and Gates DH #585
Obverse: A south view of St. Matthew's ST. MATHEW'S FRIDAY . STREET . BUILT. Ex: JACOBS in small letters 1670. in two lines
Reverse: The Skidmore cypher PSCO in script DEDICATED TO COLLECTORS OF MEDALS & COINS . surrounding
Edge: Plain
Diesinker: Benjamin Jacobs
Manufacturer: Paul Skidmore
Weight: 11.28g
Rarity: Common
The church stood on the west side of Friday Street, Cheapside, in the city of London. The old church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London and rebuilt in 1681-5 from a design by Christopher Wren and was the smallest and cheapest of the Wren churches. The church eventually became redundant and was sold in 1881 and taken down in 1885 and the parish combined with St. Vedast. A shopping center now occupies the site.
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 450
Bt. Merfyn Williams