British Tokens

Dalton, R., and Hamer, S.H., The Provincial Token-Coinage of the 18th Century [London, 1910-17], fully interleaved and bound in 5 vols, 567pp, illustrations in text (Manville 697); together with a specimen Prospectus for Part I of the work, into which an open letter from Richard Dalton, February 1909, and a letter to Virgil Brand from Spink, 21 April 1910, has been tipped-in [Lot]. Green half-leather, ribbed and gilt spines; the interleaves extensively annotated with a full record of what is believed to have been Dalton’s personal collection, the condition of the pieces in it, the prices he paid and, in many instances, the sources of his tokens, together with a few additions in later hands; an important and significant set £800-1,000

Provenance: Ex libris Richard Dalton, Bristol; Peter Seaby; David Griffiths.

This volume demonstrates that Dalton, who bought and sold tokens widely in the first 20 years of the last century, principally to better the pieces in his own collection, acquired tokens directly from his fellow-collectors Thomas Bliss, W.J. Davis, Samuel Hamer and William Norman, as well as the dealers Baldwin, Clements, Lincoln, Spink and Verity. It also shows that Dalton knew which of the pieces he was seeking were owned by Hamer, Harold Bowles, Francis Cokayne, William Longman, John G. Murdoch and others, and he was very aware of the British Museum’s holdings