Owner Comments:
Middlesex Skidmore's Globe Series DH #143
Obverse: View of the ruins of Bowes Castle with JACOBS beneath, BOWES . CASTLE . above and YORKSHIRE . below
Reverse: A terrestrial globe on a stand with a rose and a thistle resting against two of its legs BRITISH . PENNY. Ex: 1797
Edge: I PROMISE TO PAY ON DEMAND THE BEARER ONE PENNY X
Diesinker: Benjamin Jacobs
Manufacturer: Paul Skidmore
Rarity: Scarce
Bowes Castle is located in County Durham near Barnard Castle (Middlesex DH 123) on the Roman road through Stainmore Pass which led to Cataractonium on the other side of the Pennines. The castle was built within the ruins of the Roman fort of Lavatrae. The castle is controlled by English Heritage and is a Grade 1 listed building and a scheduled monument.
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.
Paul Skidmore was the son of Peter. This is from Skidmore's series of 'Globe Pennies' that featured 32 well known Provincial buildings, mainly famous Castles and Churches throughout the UK. They were issued in quite small numbers - plus the dies that Jacobs engraved were quite brittle and many broke before the required number was struck. It is possible that Skidmore made this globe series of pennies for the London coin dealer Matthew Denton. The coins were primarily sold to collectors but in these times of desperate need for copper change they often got into circulation alongside the regal copper and other genuine tradesmen's tokens.
Atkins: Yorkshire 2
Bt. Brian Herriott