Tradesmen's tokens were declared illegal by the British government in 1818, but recurring shortages of regal copper coins, especially farthings, caused their reappearance under the guise of "advertising tickets " {the British term for "advertising tokens" or "storecards"]. Actually, some Scottish and Irish merchants openly defied the law by placing the word "FARTHING" on their tokens-- a practice that was emulated by many English merchants, as it became evident that the British government did not intend to enforce its statute.
These copper or brass tokens were issued in great variety and abundance by merchants throughout the British Isles between 1820 and about 1870, at which time they were no longer needed , because of the increased production of copper coins by the regal mint. The tokens in this series have been designated as "unofficial farthings"by the British catalogers. They are the size of US small cents , and are as varied and interesting as their contemporaries across the "great pond"-- the US Civil War tokens.
All text and images for this page were provided by British token dealer Simon Cordova
The standard references for this series are UNOFFICIAL FARTHINGS 1820-1870, by R.C. Bell {out of print} and BELL'S UNOFFICIAL FARTHINGS by R.C. Bell, J. Whitmore , and J. Sweeny
