another question about tokens

[sparkey0151]

What was the reason for a token instead of a coin, was it the cost of the metal?

regards john

[TomGoodheart]

Depends on the token. Some were used as coins when the official issues weren't sufficient to provide people with small change and otherwise business would have suffered.

Others were used to advertise services and presumably handed out with change. Others .. maybe just souvenirs?

Advertising token:

US 'Civil War' Token which I think were used as change:

Money of necessity (struck during Spanish Civil war to provide local currency)

.

Edited November 22, 2014 by TomGoodheart

[Peter]

There was a shortage of circulating currency so traders minted their own tokens.

At the same time the majority of copper coins were counterfeit.Especially in Scotland.

[Peckris]

Are you talking 18th Century copper tokens, mostly for halfpennies?

Those were triggered by the fluctuation in metal prices during the reign of George III - they were so volatile there was a huge shortage of currency caused by the non-issue of regular coinage. Matthew Boulton, with his new production techniques, encouraged the use of tokens by private companies, and issued large amounts of them. The companies didn't complain either, as they were used towards wages and got spent in the company shop(s). The Treasury didn't really give a damn about the base metal coinage (or should I say it was bottom of their priorities), so turned a blind eye for some years; they also knew that there was a 'fix' in the offing, courtesy of that self-same Matthew Boulton.

From 1797 onwards, though tokens didn't disappear overnight, the need for them dwindled massively. Apart from a slight resurgence in the early 19th Century (there were no coppers in the Great Recoinage of 1816), the emergence of regular coppers from 1820 meant that trade tokens more or less had their day.