Commonwealth (1649-1660), Farthing [1654], in pewter, issued by Tobias Knowles, tk within wreath of roses above shield bearing cross moline, rev. shield bearing Irish harp, sun with rays over and around, 9.00g/6h (Whittell, TCSB March 2015, fig. 2; Cooke 816; BMC 373). Obverse about very fine, reverse fine and free of tin pest, very rare £600-800

Tobias Knowles (1601-68), originally from Kingston-upon-Thames, pewterer, served in the army, first for Charles I and then on the Parliamentary side during the Civil War, rising to the rank of captain. With the advent of Commonwealth rule, Knowles petitioned Parliament to be allowed to make farthings for the state and in so doing recover the £5,468 he reckoned it had cost him to support the Parliamentary cause in the War. Initially his efforts came to nothing, probably because David Ramage and his cohort of moneyers in the Tower were already running a very profitable enterprise manufacturing tokens for private merchants. Undaunted, Knowles presented a second petition to ‘his Highnesse the Lord Protector’ in March 1653/4 and then took it upon himself to produce farthings containing a quarter of an ounce of fine pewter. These entered circulation on 26 April 1654, but no authority had been given for their issue and they were prohibited by order of the Council of State through an announcement in the issue of Mercurius Publicus for 4-11 May 1654. Knowles is known to have been associated with the band of token manufacturers active during the decline of the Protectorate and the early years of Charles II’s reign and it has been demonstrated by Christopher Whittell that Knowles had a hand in producing the coinage for Lord Baltimore, governor of Maryland, in 1660