Owner Comments:
It is truly a shame that Boulton never had the opportunity to employ his Soho Mint to strike regal silver coinage. Beyond a few patterns, the closest he ever came was with his work for the Bank of England. Many readers are likely aware of the Bank of England “Dollars” that were struck at the Soho mint using Spanish Eight Reales coins (as struck) essentially as planchets. The 1804 tokens were valued at five shillings, a value determined to be sufficient to warrant general acceptance but presented no extreme risk of exportation. The constant conflict throughout the late 18th and early 19th centuries made the price of silver and gold fluctuate. The volatility of the market set the stage for a delicate balancing act. If the currency was assigned too high a nominal value relative to its intrinsic value, it risked being rejected by the populace due to a lack of confidence, a lesson the British people already learned over the last several centuries. On the contrary, if the intrinsic value was too high relative to the nominal value, there was an extreme risk of exportation. Those willing to break the law by exporting undervalued coinage to the global market could gain substantial profit if the margin between the nominal and intrinsic values grew large enough. Despite this conundrum, there was a genuine need for circulating silver specie. The industrial revolution was in full swing, and the success of domestic commerce required something more substantial than paper notes, which lacked the general trust of many. The Bank of England stepped in to fill the void and contracted Matthew Boulton’s Soho Mint to produce the 1804 token coinage. This worked well enough, but eventually the price of silver began to outpace the nominal value of five shillings. This point is best illustrated by the contemporary report provided below (original spelling, grammar, and format):
________________________________________________________________________________________________
THE BELFAST NEWS LETTER.
Thursday, March 21, 1811.
The Bank of England have issued an advertisement, stating that they have resolved to advance the nominal value of the dollar token 10 per cent. in order to prevent the dollars from being taken out of circulation, while they passed for 5s. only, and were intrinsically worth 5s. 2d. It was quite natural that persons, who do not hesitate to counterfeit, or deteriorate the current coin, would beat a dollar token into sixpences, if they could get for 5s. what was worth in weight of silver 5s. 6d.; but now that the token stands for 5s. 6d. they will buy bullion rather than dollars. This experiment, for it is only an experiment, however, gave a shock to public credit; for persons crowded to the Bank, and for four dollars received a twenty shillings note and two shillings.
Any thing that unsettles the public mind as to credit is dangerous. A rumor was circulated that to equalize the thing, guineas must also be raised in their denomination to 26 or 27 shillings. And because Stocks fell, it was ignorantly ascribed to this manoeuvre.
The following is the notice published by the Bank of England upon the occasion:
BANK DOLLAR TOKENS.
“Whereas the price of Silver has risen so much since the first issue of Bank Dollar Tokens at 5s. each, as now to make them worth more to be sold as Bullion than the price at which they are current; and whereas it has been deemed experiment, at the recommendation of the Right Honourable the Lords Committee of Privy Council, in order to present their being withdrawn from circulation, that an additional value nearly proportionate to that an which they were fist issued in relation to their intrinsic value, be now assigned to them: The Governor and Company of the Bank of England do therefore hereby give notice, that they have given orders to their Cashiers and other Officers, from henceforth (until public notice to the contrary, of not less than six months, shall have been given) to receive all Bank Dollar Tokens tendered in payment at the Bank, at the rate of 5s. 6d. each, instead of 5s. as heretofore; and to pay and to issue all such Bank Dollar Tokens as shall be paid or issued hereafter by them, at the same rate of 5s. 6d. each.”
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
The satirical caricature illustrated above depicts the public mistrust of paper notes in favor of physical specie. The explanation provided by the British Museum, which is an extract from Barrie Cook's catalogue entry in S. O'Connell (ed.), "Britain meets the World: 1714-1830" (Palace Museum, Beijing, 2007), for a similar print in their collection best summarizes the meaning:
The importance of the role of gold becomes clearest when it came under threat. During the long wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France, a combination of government borrowing and panicky hoarding by the public brought the national gold reserves so low that in 1797 the Bank Restriction Act was passed by Parliament according to which the Bank of England stopped paying out coin for its notes and made the first large issue of £1 notes. This caused immense concern to a populace whose confidence in the monetary system depended on being able to exchange notes for gold and who deeply mistrusted these that could not be exchanged. ... Gillray makes clear the alarm and mistrust the government aroused by this measure. Here the Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, is shown as a reverse Midas, the figure from ancient Greek myth who turned all he touched to gold. In contrast to Midas, Pitt - by the process of digestion - is turning gold into paper and expelling it into the nation.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Obverse: This obverse design should look somewhat familiar to those who have pursued my other set detailing the history of the medals struck at the Soho Mint. If not, readers are encouraged to review the entries for Lord Radnor’s medal commemorating George III’s Golden Jubilee. The obverse depicts the bust of King George III facing left. Unlike most of the other obverse types, he is not wearing a wig (i.e., he is depicted with natural hair). Crowning his head is a laurel wreath consisting of thirteen leaves and five berries, which is tied together by a knotted ribbon with two loops and one loose end. Numerous curls of hair are depicted throughout the body of his hair, several of which overlap the leaves. One leaf covers the top of his ear. A series of fine curls appears throughout his hairline, several of which protrude outward to form his sideburns. His hair is short, resembling the portrait used on the 1806 coinage. The loose end of the tied ribbon flows freely behind his left shoulder before curving to wrap tightly against the shoulder truncation. The truncation is obliquely striated with two raised stars separated by a dot in the middle. His shoulders are draped by a fabric that is wrapped around his right shoulder, forming multiple folds across his chest. This drapery is secured by a circular brooch on his left shoulder. This brooch is unlike any other I have encountered beyond this series. The inner part almost appears as a continuation of the beaded border of his undershirt, while the outer band is adorned with six oval jewels. His left shoulder protrudes from under the drapery, which is covered by an undergarment with a beaded or frilled border. This beaded or frilled border is also evident in the oddly shaped collar protruding from under the drapery. The main legend
GEORGIUS III DIE GRATIA REX. appears above the main device. The entire design is contained within an unusually long toothed border.
Reverse: The reverse design is simple, yet somewhat unusual in that the wreath is made of a single oak branch, tied in the middle by a ribbon with two loops and two loose ends. The loose end on the left is wrapped around the end of the branch, while the right loose end flows downward. The engraver's initials
I · P . appear below between the two loose ends. In total, there are thirty acorns and forty-one leaves. The reverse legend
BANK TOKEN 5S. 6D. 1811 appears centered within the wreath in four lines. Like the obverse, all of this is contained within an unusually long toothed border.
Edge: Plain – the edge is obscured by the PCGS slab.
Notes: Given the general public’s apprehension of change and palpable fear of non-specie payment, it makes sense that the Bank of England would give some consideration to a new token coinage that reflected the change in nominal value. Several different designs were proposed, the most frequently encountered of which is represented by the current piece. Patterns such as this struck in copper, served as cheap “samples” to allow those in power to review tangible representations of the proposed token. Despite the best efforts of the Soho Mint, the Bank of England was slow to respond, and the perpetual hope of ending the war only fueled their hesitancy. The Napoleonic wars would come to an end in 1815, and with the cessation of hostilities, the price of specie largely stabilized, thus making the new tokens less necessary. Eventually, the Royal Mint would step in to provide a much-needed silver coinage. Although the proposed new token coinage for the Bank of England never came to be, collectors today still have an opportunity to acquire the numerous patterns struck for the purpose. The current piece is an exceptional example with an even more impeccable provenance that dates back over two centuries to the Boulton Family Estate.