The Collection of 18th Century Tokens formed by Dr David L Spence

Birmingham, Workhouse, Two Shillings and Sixpence, 1788 (4), in dark copper, 19.12g/12h, in light copper, 19.20g/12h, in brass, 19.10g/12h (all DH 1), in plated brass, counterstamped w both sides, 19.21g/12h (DH 1a) [4]. First extremely fine with a hint of original colour and attractive, others about very fine (£90-120)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of 18th Century Tokens formed by Dr David L Spence.

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Collection

Provenance:
Fawcett/Litman Collection.

First only illustrated. The Birmingham Workhouse, Lichfield street, was erected in 1733 and enlarged and extended in 1766 and 1779; it was demolished in 1853. Although the large value tokens in this and the next lot have always been ascribed to the Workhouse on account of the bwh cypher they bear, Mays (1991, pp.125-7) refers to an advertisement published in the Birmingham Gazette, 17 August 1812, relating to the circulation of false Workhouse silver halfcrowns, in which the overseers “inform the public that they have never issued Tokens of 2s. 6d. nor any of a higher value than 1s”, the inference being that the 1788 coins, issued a generation earlier, were but a distant memory