Trade tokens first appeared in the mid-1600s, when there wasn't enough official small change in circulation for everyday trade. Local tradesmen and merchants struck their own farthings and halfpennies to fill the gap. Up to 20,000 different tokens were produced between 1648 and 1672, until King Charles II's government introduced a new official copper coinage and banned private tokens outright.
A second wave followed in the late 1700s. The Royal Mint had stopped making copper coins, counterfeits were everywhere, and the Industrial Revolution meant more workers needed small change for wages. Merchants and manufacturers issued their own tokens again from 1787, known today as Conder tokens, after James Conder, one of the first people to catalogue them. The government outlawed them in 1797 once it started producing enough official coinage.
Communion tokens are a different kind of token altogether. Scottish Presbyterian churches issued them to members so elders could check who was entitled to take communion, a practice going back to the 16th century. They were handed out before each communion service and had to be presented at the door. Most churches had stopped using them by the early 20th century.
We also stock Co-operative Society tokens. From the mid-1800s, Co-op checks recorded how much a member had spent so their dividend could be calculated later, and from the early 20th century, separate tokens were used to pay for deliveries of milk, bread and other goods without handling cash. New stock is added regularly.
