Owner Comments:
Middlesex Skidmore's Churches and Gates DH #537
Obverse: The side elevation of a church with a tree in the foreground FILTWICK . CHURCH . BEDFORDSHRE. Ex: JACOBS in small letters and Bt. 1670. in two lines
Reverse: The Skidmore cypher - PSCO in script, 1797 below, DEDICATED . TO . COLLECTORS . OF . MEDALS. & COINS . surrounding
Edge: Plain
Diesinker: Benjamin Jacobs
Manufacturer: Paul Skidmore
Weight: 11.60g
Rarity: Common
The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul is a parish church in Flitwick, Bedfordshire. The current church was built in the 12th century, replacing a Saxon church that stood on the same spot. The church is a Grade 1 listed building.
The token is also catalogued by Dalton and Hamer as Bedfordshire Flitwick DH #1 and the reader is referred to the Middlesex section for the image and description.
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: Bedfordshire 1
Noonans Sale, 24 January 2023