Important British and World Coins

Miscellaneous, Sir Josiah Mason, Birmingham: Cupro-nickel checks (2) [c. 1875], mermaid, revs. specimen of alloy for coinage around made from sir j. mason’s nickel, edges plain, both 26mm, thick flan, 7.74g/12h, thin flan, 5.83g/12h; H.B. Sale Ltd, Birmingham: Brass spinner, h.b. sale ltd b’ham for service & skill dies, tools, moulds, engraving, presswork etc in eight lines, rev. arrow dividing you pay, edge plain, 30mm, 9.71g/5h [3]. First extremely fine, others very fine, the Mason pieces very rare (£40-60)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Joanna Tansley Collection of Patterns, Proofs and Coining Trials.

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First and third only illustrated. Sir Josiah Mason (1795-1881), the son of a Kidderminster weaver, had very little education, teaching himself to read and write while, from the tender age of 8, becoming a street hawker of confectionery, fruit and vegetables. In his teens he tried his hand at numerous trades, including shoemaking and house-painting, before moving to Birmingham in 1816 to work for his uncle, Richard Griffiths, manager of the Aston Flint Glassworks. Griffiths had recently invested in a toymaking and jewellery business and in 1817 Mason was placed in charge of it. A dispute with his uncle led, in 1822, to Mason working for Samuel Harrison, a split-ring manufacturer in Lancaster street, Aston, who is thought to have been the first person to make steel pen nibs in Birmingham. Retiring in 1823, Harrison sold the business to Mason for £500. From 1829 to 1875, when he retired at the age of 80, Mason was the largest producer of pens in England, supplying all the Perryian pens made ostensibly for James Perry, the London stationer and employing over 1,000 people. In 1842 Mason bought a third-share in the pioneering electroplating business established by George Elkington, while he was also to the fore in pioneering nickel plating as a cheap substitute for silver plate, helping to establish the world’s first nickel manufacturing works in Erdington. Mason was a considerable benefactor to the city of Birmingham, opening almshouses, orphanages and a college of science, two early alumni at which were Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain. His checks were made by Heaton’s sometime after 1872 (Hawkins pp.286-7).

Henry Bailey Sale, letter cutter and engraver, set up his business in Great Hampton street, Birmingham, in 1862; it became a limited company in 1901 and since 1915 has been located at the Progress Works, 393 Summer lane, Birmingham