R.C. Bell, Commercial Coins. 1787-1804 « Thread Started on Oct 17, 2009, 6:18pm »
This book is the first of several out-of-print books by author R.C. Bell that are essential to begin to understand the stories and reasons behind the designs of the thousands of varieties of provincial tokens.
This 319 page book is limited to tokens that were truly used for commerce rather than those created for collectors, advertising, political purposes, or were merely fakes or medalets. The jacket describes the contents as only focused upon the Genuine Traders' Tokens issued between these years. Each token is cross referenced to the D&H #, a poor black & white photo accompanies each description and the authors comments are included.
Here is an image of the cover along with a copy of the first page of my copy showing showing Bell's inscription of Christmas wishes to a friend:
I will write about the other books he wrote that speak to the other versions of tokens of this period (as time permits).
Re: R.C. Bell, Commercial Coins. 1787-1804 « Reply #1 on Oct 17, 2009, 11:39pm »
An interesting fact is that Bell essentially plagiarized his information from the Richard Samuel articles written for Gentleman's Magazine, a British publication of the late 1800's.
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Some of my Opinions on Conder Tokens • 11-6-09 « Reply #2 on Nov 6, 2009, 3:09pm »
Thanks, Catbert. That's an interesting book, and your description brings up a few thoughts of mine...
Britain's coinage had been seriously hampered by counterfeiters. In fact, some estimates place the percentage of counterfeit coin at 75-90% in the period just before the advent of Conder tokens which occurred in 1787. I don't know how much coinage existed there before Conder Tokens, but I feel that a citizen with any money in their pocket was a rarity, and trinkets were likely to be used as payment. They were still in a barter economy, unless in a bustling town, or rich. Folks would obtain coinage, real or fake, through trade. For centuries, they had relied on the intrinsic value of the metals, and probably paid little attention to whether a piece was genuine or an imitation.
For several years, Conder tokens carried a promise to pay, and the locations (towns generally) where tokens could be redeemed. I have no idea what they could be redeemed for, since the only small change available would be another Conder token. The British government struck no copper coinage for about a 30-year period due to King George III's disdain for copper coinage. As a matter of fact, the king allowed and even espoused the striking of Conder tokens. He saw that they were good for business, and provided another practical use for the expanding supply of copper in the kingdom.
When copper had been discovered at Parys Mountain in 1768, it meant that hundreds of uses would be found, that industry would expand accordingly and the level of copper exports would skyrocket. Birmingham was the town in which the greatest advance occurred, as 'toymakers,' who manufactured in their homes expanded their businesses, usually having to move their families and personal belongings from the overcrowded city to the 'suburbs.' Birmingham became the center of copper trading and fabrication of products containing copper.
So Conders circulated, at first locally in Anglesey, being paid to workers who lived and worked on that island in North Wales. The copper deposits at Parys Mountain were the richest in the world at the time, and the workers had little question of the value of the metal. For a good while, plentiful supplies of copper, which comes from iron ore, had been obtained from mines in Cornwall, but export was minimal, and the supply was generally used for fabricating products used within Great Britain.
As workers left the farms and ventured to the towns for employment, their past bartering was supplanted by payment in tokens, with the highest paid workers receiving about twenty one penny tokens for a day's work, though the 'settling' occurred at the mines only once every two months. As tokens from the mines began to circulate widely, merchants soon saw the opportunity to advertise on similar tokens. It's easy to understand their desire to have their businesses publicized by widely circulating tokens.
When Matthew Boulton had opened his Soho Manufactory, he began to produce many of the products that had been fashioned in Birmingham, but he sought to produce the finest possible products, and the assembly line techniques employed at Soho mimicked the production processes which had been carried on in Birmingham, where parts were produced in one house, and forwarded to another house for completion of the next stage in production. Few products had been fully manufactured in one home. The 'workers' were generally family members, and not 'employees' as we think of them. Soho had the first mass production assembly lines, and Boulton and his workforce were constantly inventing and using specialized equipment designed for accomplishing some particular stage of the manufacturing process for a product. Many of the machines were used for drilling, boring, turning, much like machine shops use today.
Boulton revolutionized the manufacturing processes he had learned or observed in Birmingham, relying on highly skilled artisans, often imported from Europe -- France, Germany, Holland, etc. While he hired skilled workers as supervisors and engineers, the backbone of his workforce at Soho were the many young lads he hired, who had been very poor, often orphans. Those lads became highly skilled, and they were intensely loyal. Soho Manufactory employed up to 1,200 workers. Though often offered jobs elsewhere, Boulton's employees could seldom be persuaded to leave Soho and their benefactor.
Copper was also crucial to the production of brass, so brass products blossomed in diversity and quality. Steam engines required brass, and copper made widespread improvements in brass products possible. For example, James Watt used brass to fabricate parts for his improving steam engines. The first horseless carriage was assembled by Soho's Superintendent Murdoch, using a carriage abandoned by Erasmus Darwin and which sat at Soho for a few years before Murdoch struck upon the idea and installed a small steam engine. He could drive it only in the country, and often late at night, since the engine belched fire, steam, ash and smoke, and made all kinds of noise, scaring locals half to death.
Most of James Watt's inventions and improvements to the steam engine were while in the employ of Matthew Boulton, and they were famous friends, and with Erasmus Darwin (Charles Darwin's father), members of a very small group called the Lunar Society. Little known is the fact that a good deal of advice on steam engine improvement came from their American friend, Benjamin Franklin, who had lived in France, visited England sometimes, and continued to be consulted by Watt and Boulton after returning to America. Franklin was, of course, a heady inventor in his own right.
As you have pointed out, plagiarism has been rampant in describing Conder tokens, and often a volume would be printed which had little or nothing original contained between its covers.
My interest, at the moment, centers on these few men and their inventiveness, and how their exploits led the Industrial Revolution, replacing water wheels at mills with steam engines, allowing canals to be filled and maintained at optimum levels by a steam engine, using similar technology to that which was employed in suctioning troublesome water from deep within underground mines.
My Conder tokens revolve around this core of men at the center of the Industrial Revolution. They, along with John Wilkinson, Ironmaster, seem key to the astounding progress made in the late 18th Century. Wilkinson invented and perfected boring processes, allowing for greater accuracy and distance in weaponry, from cannons to rifles. He also provided the iron for the first iron bridge in England, located at Coalbrook Dale in Shropshire. Copper sheets were soon used for plating the underwater portions of hulls on ships. In fact, Wilkinson constructed the first iron ship, which few had though capable of floating. It was developed into a sailing barge which floated well and navigated up and down a river. Widespread use of metal and steam-powered ships was just around the corner.
In 1797, King George relented and relied on Boulton to produce the nation's first copper coinage in many years. The coinage was produced at the Soho Mint, which Boulton had constructed earlier in hopes of winning such a government contract. An added measure implemented on those 'cartwheel' coins was an anti-counterfeiting design. Because tokens were outlawed when the new official coinage was issued, it meant the end for Conder tokens. I therefore collect no tokens struck after that 1797, and generally no later than 1796.
When I see a token from 1802 or 1811 offered as a Conder token, I laugh, and avoid them completely. In fact, except for a few businesses, like the mines and the related businesses like 'mineral water,' the iron bridge at Coalbrook Dale, steam power, and a few famous political characters, I have little interest in 'merchant tokens.' But I am interested in the tokens of James Conder, John Wilkinson, Matthew Boulton, and a few others. But I am interested in tokens that advertised the businesses of coin dealers, such as Thomas Spence and die sinkers like Kempson and Skidmore. Tokens advertising run of the mill hardware dealers, clothiers, etc., hold no interest for me.
So I do not look at Conder tokens as 'merchant tokens,' but as tokens related to the Industrial Revolution, and historically significant men, statues, buildings and cathedrals. And I do love castles, bricks, bridges and critters on Conder tokens.
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In a similar manner, my interests in Civil War Tokens do not gravitate to merchant tokens so much as I seek tokens which appeal to me because of their designs, and their relationship to American history. Again, in the CWT area, I am interested in the die sinkers. Amazingly, there were only 32 men that designed and engraved the dies for those 25 million tokens or more. : )
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Disclaimer: Perhaps others have better information than I, especially since I am relatively new to Conder Tokens but am actively seeking to expand my knowledge. So far, I believe I have read the equivalent of at least 10 books on Conder Tokens, much of my research using internet resources.
If you have information to supplement that posted so far, or refute any portion of it, I'd love to hear it. Internet resources are not infallible, nor am I. ; )
There is much that can be gleaned from sharing information, and this thread and this section of the Message Board could become a great resource for those wishing to learn more or share their information, links, opinions, or token examples. : )
Thanks, to all, and especially to Catbert for posting this thread.
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Types of Conder Tokens 1787-1796 or so « Reply #3 on Nov 6, 2009, 4:42pm »
I have a bit more to add here...
I believe that all coins, tokens or medals of the period could circulate, and examples of all of these types are found worn, obviously from circulation. But any token or medal might be found in circulation because of its intrinsic value, even counterfeits. I believe that is why several types of coinage are included in many of books and catalogs, and many pamphlets. Some publications are highly specialized, while some are very general in nature.
It is important to know that there were many coin collectors even then, and all the way back to Rome. In towns in England there were also coin dealers that sold numismatic items to their customers as a matter of routine, as now.
Types of Conder Tokens of which I am aware...
• Promise to pay by merchant or issuer
• Specious tokens -- imaginary merchants, that seemed plausible, but were not real
• General convenience -- bore no location or promise to pay
• Tradesman tokens -- general issuers -- no promise to pay
• National Series (medalets) -- art medals and commemoratives, like death medals, historical places and events
• Political Series (medalets) -- method of disseminating views for or against issues of the time
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Dalton & Hamer also list the known Counterfeits « Reply #4 on Nov 6, 2009, 4:59pm »
Counterfeits did not outnumber genuine tokens for most issues, so their rarity often exceeds that of a similar genuine issue.
Today, little difference is drawn between genuine and counterfeits, and counterfeits usually a fetch a comparable price to the genuine article. Ordinarily, only collectors and numismatists with pertinent books will know the difference.
For the above reasons, the known counterfeits are also included in Dalton & Hamer.
Re: R.C. Bell, Commercial Coins. 1787-1804 « Reply #5 on Nov 8, 2009, 12:36pm »
Wow, Larry.......you've done a nice summary in your posts above. It is great that you are diving deep into the history behind these wonderful pieces. I highly recommend that you acquire the out-of-print R.C. Bell books that can be had if you search (McKivor has a few and often Abe Books or Charlie Davis can augment your efforts) for them. It will cost you about $400-$500 total to obtain but they are well worth it. Here are the remaining books I alluded to in my first post:
Tradesmen's Tickets and Private Tokens 1785-1819
Specious Tokens and those struck for General Circulation 1784-1804
The Building Medalets of Kempson and Skidmore 1796-1797
Political and Commemorative Pieces Simulating Tradesmen's Tokens 1770-1802
I am most excited that I have acquired the 90th hardbound book of 90 made of Richard Thomas Samuel's articles and notes as published in The Bazaar, Exchange and Mart, and Journal of the Household - December 29, 1880 through August 28, 1889. This 523 page book was assembled by Harold Welch (signing each copy) who located the dusty volumes of this magazine in the stacks at the University of Minnesota. He copied the pages referring to tokens and went to the publisher of the D&H (Alan Davisson) who bound the book.
Again, R.C. Bell based much of his writing by using Richard Samuel's material. However, he didn't use it all and so I'm looking forward to perusing Bell and Samuel as I research new pieces that I acquire. Additionally, the Samuel book will provide some interesting commentary shared by readers of the 1880s who wrote in response to Samuel's articles!
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Re: R.C. Bell, Commercial Coins. 1787-1804 « Reply #6 on Nov 9, 2009, 6:57am »
Thanks, Catbert...
I am interested in purchasing some additional books and will look into those you have mentioned. First, I want to get Dr. Doty's book about the industrialization of money, especially since I now have one of his tokens. But Bell is definitely on my list.
I am not interested in any tokens except the Conders described in Dalton & Hamer, and certainly nothing in the 19th Century. Those will have to be owned and studied by others. : )
Re: R.C. Bell, Commercial Coins. 1787-1804 « Reply #7 on Nov 11, 2009, 12:00am »
Larry -
I agree about focusing on the late 18th century. No comparison with the other periods.
Have you thought about becoming a member of the Conder Tokens Collector Club (CTCC)? Annual dues are only $25 and you'll get the quarterly journal. If you're interested, contact Rachel Irish at mrirish5@adelphia.net Q. David Bowers just became a member!
Join coinzip's Civil War Token Club and Conder Token Club. : )
Joined: May 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 847 Location: Chicago
Re: R.C. Bell, Commercial Coins. 1787-1804 « Reply #8 on Nov 11, 2009, 1:21pm »
Yes, Catbert, I have contacted Rachel Irish and obtained the CTCC application, but may wait until Jan.1 to join. It was recommended by a couple of dealers who are members.
I had even brought up the subject of having CTCC members conduct meetings in chat here, but our dedicated chatrooms are not working now, so I may give up on that idea. Still, I would be interested in joining. : )
The is a British American Token Congress to be held in Virginia next year. The first was held in Seattle in 2009. It's an offshoot of the British Token Congress, held each year in the UK.
Re: R.C. Bell, Commercial Coins. 1787-1804 « Reply #9 on Nov 12, 2009, 11:05pm »
I'm already planning to go to Charlottesville, money and time permitting. VA is where I was raised and is home for me although I now live in the midwest. Maybe I'll have the honor of meeting you there!
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