Providing tokens that could only be used in a company store ("tommy shop")
was called "Truck" in UK and outlawed to a large extent in 1831. In
practice, enforcement was imperfect. Tommy shops had a reputation for
providing poor quality goods at a high price, so that the abuse was a real
one.
The phenomenon represented by the token is however a different one. The
token had a face value of a penny and contained about a penny's worth of
copper. Accordingly, a trader who accepted it in payment ran no risk,
because ultimately, he could get it melted down and sell the underlying
metal. That was unlikely to happen because the issuers expected to exchange
them at face value for coin of the realm, so that the trader accepting them
merely had to collect a sufficient quantity to be able to receive silver
currency.
The underlying problem was that the cost of producing a copper penny by
traditional methods was similar to that of producing a silver coin, and thus
high compared to the value of the resultant coin. Matthew Boulton had the
means of producing coin-like tokens much more cheaply, but it was some time
before the Royal Mint adopted such machinery. My recollection is that
tokens circulated mainly at two periods - in the mid 17th century and the
late 18th/early 19th.
I suspect that the London Lead Company's sales of silver to the mint were
between a willing buyer and a willing seller, but I cannot be more specific,
as this is not my subject.
Peter King
49, Stourbridge Road,
Hagley,
Stourbridge
West Midlands
DY9 0QS
01562-720368
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-----Original Message-----
From: mining-history [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
Peter Bell
Sent: 12 April 2010 02:43
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Parys Mountain half penny
Tokens were a nineteenth century form of what is called a loyalty
program today. Originally, when you made a purchase, the shop would
give you change in the form of tokens which could only be redeemed in
the same shop. In practice they were soon in general circulation
throughout the local community, but usually not beyond.
Some American mining companies had a far more insidious practice of
paying all or part of the workers' wages in tokens which could only
be used in the company-owned store, but I've never heard of that
outside the USA.
Peter Bell
On 11/04/2010, at 10:57 PM, Peter King wrote:
> What you have is strictly a token not a coin. In the late 18th
> century
> there was a shortage of small change and a number of industrialists
> minted
> tokens, which circulated like coins, but usually (I think) mainly
> in the
> area of the works. I think that many such tokens were minted by
> Matthew
> Boulton in Birmingham. Since the Parys Mine Company were producing
> copper,
> circulating copper tokens was natural, but the ironmaster John
> Wilkinson
> (for example) also did so.
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