Coins, Tokens and Historical Medals

Tickets and Checks (Post-1830), Douglas, Isle of Man Times, brass, legend around 2 1/2 [dozen], rev. blank, edge grained, 32mm, 10.02g (Quarmby 110; Mackay 163; cf. Guard 549). Very fine, rare £100-150

Provenance: R.J. Ford Collection, Part I, Spink Auction 79, 15 October 1990, lot 246 (part); R. Cain Collection, Spink Auction 145, 12-14 July 2000, lot 2793 (part).

The Isle of Man Times and General Advertiser, to give the newspaper its full title, was founded by James Brown (1815-81), a jobbing printer who had arrived on the island in 1846. The first issue was published from Wellington street, Douglas, on 4 May 1861. To the frustration of members of the House of Keys, Brown championed a petition for by-laws which would facilitate improvements to the town as a growing seaside resort. He was accused by the Keys of libel and in 1864 sentenced to six months imprisonment in Castle Rushen gaol; after six weeks the sentence was overturned on appeal to the Queen’s Bench and Brown awarded £519 in damages. The title moved to 9 Athol street in May 1872, where the business continued for the next 100 years. His son, John Archibald Brown (1839-1925), a freemason and property developer, took over the newspaper in 1877 and it remained in family ownership until 1958 (Alan Kelly, pers. comm.)