Owner Comments:
Middlesex Spence DH #772a
Obverse: Bust of Charles Fox to right, JAMES beneath in small letters RT. . HE. . C. J. Fox. .
Reverse: A tree with two oval shields leaning against its trunk, JACOBS below in small letters. The left shield has a flag and a pole bearing with the Cap of Liberty within a wreath of laurel while the right shield has a pair of scales and a sword A . FRIEND . TO . PEACE . AND . LIBERTY.
Edge: Milled /////
Diesinker: Charles James / Benjamin Jacobs
Manufacturer: Paul Skidmore
Weight: 9.66g
Rarity: Common
A mule combining a Spence obverse die with a Skidmore reverse die. This is the only occurrence of the use of the reverse die.
Thomas Spence declared bankruptcy in 1796/7 and sold his dies to Peter Skidmore. The Spence dies were then paired with other Spence and Skidmore dies to produce tokens for collectors.
The flan suffered a major crack during minting.
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.
Atkins: Middlesex 604a
Bt. Merfyn Williams