Coins, Tokens and Historical Medals

Tickets and Checks (Post-1830), Douglas, Douglas Bazaar, August 1857, plated brass [Sixpence], bust of Victoria left, rev. legend around triskeles, edge guilloche, 18mm, 2.46g/12h (W 6910; Quarmby 82; Mackay 152a; cf. R.J. Ford I, 243; cf. Cain 2791; cf. Guard 537). Good very fine, very rare with original tinning £100-150

A token, or admission ticket, for the Ladies’ Fancy Fair and Bazaar in aid of the House of Industry and the Isle of Man General Hospital, held on 4 and 5 August 1857 in the Nunnery Grounds, Douglas. A report in the Mona Herald, 5 August, states: “four tents one hundred feet long by fifty wide were speedily erected, and…fully decorated, both internally and externally, with flags, festoons of evergreens, flowers, etc.” Over the two-day event, to which admission cost sixpence, £800 was taken and, as the weather was fine and a considerable stock of goods were available for purchase, the bazaar remained open for a third day (Alan Cope, TCSB January 1999, pp.127-30, and Alan Kelly, pers. comm.)