Owner Comments:
Middlesex Skidmore’s Churches and Gates DH #632
Obverse: A south view of All Hallows the Great that was located on what is now Upper Thames Street ALHALLOWS . THAMES ST. Ex: JACOBS Bt. 1683. 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
Rarity: Common
The church stood on the north side of what is now Upper Thames Street. Originally a Cluniac priory founded in 1082. The church has been referred to by several names including All Hallows the More, All Hallows in the Hay, All Hallows in the Ropery, and All Hallows Thames Street. Destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 it was rebuilt by the office of Christopher Wren between 1677 and 1684 and combined with the parish of All Hallows the Less which was not rebuilt. The church was demolished in 1894.
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 486