#That nice Mister A. Ziraphale who ran the bookshop two doors along

[mister-a-z-fell]

It took some searching, but I finally unearthed the trade tokens from my old shop on the bridge. Rather the worse for wear, but still legible!

The lack of small denomination coins at that time made everyday purchases difficult. Traders took it upon themselves to issue farthing (a quarter of a penny) and half-penny tokens to fill the gap.

Shops could give these tokens as change, and would accept other traders’ tokens. Thus, for example, Mister Finch of ‘The Dog’s Head’ might come to me with twenty-four of my half-penny tokens, and redeem them for a shilling.

The practice survived for some several decades until, in 1672, a proclamation was issued by Charles II that copper farthings and halfpence stamped at the Mint would be the only permitted coinage, and the issuing of private tokens largely ceased.

You might be interested to know that the discussion of minting /legal/ small coinage was discussed by the Commonwealth Government — as beneficial to the poor — as early as 1651. Despite this, nothing was done about it. For almost thirty years.

Isn’t history interesting?