The Collection of British Tokens formed by John Rose

John Rose

John Rose, a familiar figure in the British token collecting fraternity for many years, first developed an interest in coins as a boy. One day in 1969, going through the trays of coins at Aladdins Cave, a shop in South Croydon, he found some tokens, including an example of the 1649 farthing issued at The Ship Inn, on the north corner of Lincoln’s Inn, London, his local pub when he first started work as a laboratory technician at the Royal College of Surgeons (see Lot 179).

The acquisition of this piece quickly fired his enthusiasm for tokens – not just those from Britain, but also issues from Canada, Ceylon and elsewhere in the colonies. John soon became a regular customer of the major London-based token dealers of the day, as well as a veritable roll-call of dealers active at the time of decimalisation – Stanmore’s Reg Lubbock, Harrow’s Ian Fine, Leytonstone’s Ken Lovell, Clive Sellen and Fred Hancock from the Arches at Charing Cross, Mike Millward (Stewart Ward) in Great Portland Street, and others – many of whom would take tables at the Sunday morning market in Cutler Street and, later on, the Saturday...