Owner Comments:
Middlesex Skidmore’s Churches and Gates DH #603
Obverse: A south west view of St. Alphage's with JACOBS below in small letters ST. ALPHAGE LONDON - WALL. Ex: A.D. 1701.
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 building depicted on the obverse is not St. Alphage, rather the church is All Hallows-on-the-Wall. The original church was built in the early 12th century on a bastion of the old Roman wall. It was renowned for the hermits who lived in cells under the wall. All Hallows escaped destruction in the Great Fire of London in 1666 due to its position under the wall but subsequently fell into ruin. The church depicted was built on the site in 1767. The church is a guild church associated with the Worshipful Company of Carpenters. The church was damaged during WW2 and restored in the 1960’s.
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 464
Bt. Northeast Numismatics