A Brief History of Trade Tokens

Obverse of 1747 Salters Arms Engraved Token

Reverse of Salters Arms Engraved Token - The Cooke Bound May 14th In The Year 1747

Obverse Of 1817 James Radford Engraved Coin

Reverse of 1817 James Radford Engraved Coin

Shortage of Small Change
Monarchs usually held a monopoly on the minting and issuing of coins. This was normally a profitable activity, but the production cost of small coins often made them unprofitable to produce. Because of this, many monarchs neglected to produce sufficient quantities of low denomination coins to meet demand. This caused considerable inconvenience to, and unrest within, the poorer classes. It was not only monarchs, but also governments who failed to provide sufficient small coins for change.

Trade & Industry to the Rescue
Many of the issuers of tokens were large employers who needed quantities of small change to pay wages. At their own cost, they produced their own "coins" usually with their nominal or face value inscribed on them, and the name of the issuers. There may have also been benefits from the advertising and publicity value of the business's names on their tokens, although in those earlier parochial times, it is possible that the companies were so well know locally that they hardly needed the extra publicity. For companies which are still in business, the benefits from the "free" advertising may have increased with the passage of time. Coins medallions and tokens, being made of durable metal, last for many centuries and so therefore does the advertising message upon them. Even where the original business no longer exists, or has changed its name, the name of the founder of the business is often immortalised, and the town of issue continues to get free publicity.

Historical Records
Many tokens provide interesting and valuable historical records, with portraits of entrepreneurs, engravings of local buildings of many kinds such as factories, town halls, workhouses, shops and churches. As they usually carry a date, they provide a lasting record of their time.

A Neglected Series
Most people know nothing about trade tokens. They were issued in far smaller quantities than official coins, largely because they were intended only for restricted local use. There is very little reason for most people to come into contact with tokens, they are not part of our daily lives, and passed out of use many years ago. Coins, on the other hand are very plentiful, we use them every day, and therefore there is greater awareness of them, and more stimulus to start coin collectors off on their hobby. Even coin collectors remain generally unaware of the existence of tokens, yet they can be far more interesting than normal coin issues for reason of their local interest.

Catalogues
There are catalogues of tokens, but they tend to be more compact and more expensive than equivalent coin catalogues, because of their specialised nature and their lower print runs.

Dealers
Many dealers tend to ignore tokens because of the relatively small numbers available. Like any other business, they need to concentrate their efforts on areas where the demand is higher, so tokens get relegated to a small tray hidden away in a back room.

Token Collectors
There are of course many collectors of tokens, but they are far fewer than coin collectors. Tokens provide good material for "theme" collectors, those interested in buildings, personalities, their local area, or some other topic which may be featured on tokens.

More To Follow
We have only touched briefly on the history of tokens in general. We will return later to add more to this page when time permits.