Today is the first anniversary of the passing of Pope Francis. In contrast to Queen Elizabeth II (who was born 100 years ago today), who was the most depicted person on coinage, there has only been one common circulating coin featuring the likeness of Pope Francis, and I wrote a piece on it shortly after his passing last year: https://coinofnote.com/2014-vatican-50-cents/

#coins #numismatics #CoinCollecting #Pope #Catholic #Christian #OnThusDay @numismatics

The thread about Conder Tokens; when Edinburgh and Leith issued their own money

This thread was originally written and published in September 2020.

Today I have found out about Conder Tokens. Did you know about Conder Tokens? Until yesterday I didn’t know what they were and until today I didn’t know what they were called

Long story short, in 18th century Britain there was a chronic shortage of small denomination coinage due to excessive counterfeiting and low production of non-precious coins by the Royal Mint. But demand for them was soaring due to industrialisation and the need to pay workers and that there were ever more consumer goods around for people to buy. As a result, counterfeit coinage boomed, perhaps two thirds of all low-value coins may have been forgeries. The Royal Mint’s response was to simply stop producing copper coins and for 48 years from 1773-1821, they struck no copper coins.A Welsh industrialist – Thomas Williams of Llanidan, “the Copper King” – proposed an anti-counterfeiting edge to the coins to the Royal Mint so long as they used his copper, but they declined.

Clearly a modern industrial country could not function without a means to pay and buy, so industry, led by Williams, resorted to simply producing their own coinage. Such coins, or tokens, could be traded freely at the denoted value and presented to some wealthy sponsoring merchant, industrialist or local worthy for exchange as required. Most people didn’t travel far or hold on to money for long, so these tokens were an ideal way for them to be paid and for them to buy things.

The idea quickly caught on. The tokens were of a much higher quality than official coinage – indeed they are instantly recognisable to us as a variation of our modern pennies – and as they were issued by prominent businessmen the provenance could be trusted. The value of the copper content also made them less susceptible to being speculated on than promissory notes or other cheap tokens – they had an intrinsic value of their own. One of the biggest manufacturers of such coins was the industrialist Matthew Boulton (James “Condensing Steam Engine” Watt’s business partner).

Boulton had the machinery, the capital, the interests in copper mines, a personal stock of copper bought in a slump in the market and the contacts. He established the Soho Mint in the West Midlands in 1788 and went into volume minting of quality tokens. His machines were of his own patented design and were driven by steam engines. Each could mint 70 to 85 coins per minute.

Such was the demand for small coinage, these tokens quickly spread and were issued on a town-by-town, county-by-county basis. As such they are often called Provincial Tokens. The name Conder Token comes from James Conder, an issuer of such coins who soon became an avid collector and cataloguer of them.

In 1797, the Government finally came to its senses about the financial crisis and issued Boulton a contract to mint official copper coinage and so provincial tokens began to wane. Production ceased by 1802, with a brief return in 1811-12, before finally being forbidden in 1817. Many Scottish municipalities joined in issuing local coinage during this time. The table shows the number of different coins known for each area of the country. The financial capital in the Lothians and the industrial capital in Lanarkshire were unsurprisingly the most prolific, alongside the trade centre in Dundee (Angus).

And so this is how we come to there being such a thing as a Leith Ha’penny. This one, of 1797, shows a sailing ship on one side – an obvious Leith connection – and Britannia on the rear.

And the John White (a merchant of the Kirkgate) Leith ha’penny, wishing “Success to the Port” with another nautical scene, showing a ship entering the Port of Leith, and featuring the stuff of profitable trade on the back; gin and tea.

So of course if Leith has Ha’pennies, of course Edinburgh has to have them to! Notice that Britannia is a gain a common theme, as are recognisable civic buildings. WRIGHT DES on the front refers to James Wright, an engraver from Dundee who designed many tokens. He was a correspondent with Conder, himself and was as keen a proponent and collector of them.

And another version, earlier from 1790, featuring the municipal coat of arms and motto, thistles, and St. Andrew himself. Note the anchor on the rear, a symbol of both Edinburgh’s merchant prosperity and also its dominance over its port at Leith. These tokens were produced by Messrs. Hutchinson of Creech’s Land, an important old building at the west end of the Luckenbooths where Alan Ramsay had his book shop and had opened Scotland’s first circulating library in 1725.

The Campbell’s Snuff of Edinburgh Ha’penny, the Turk’s Head being a connection to smoking. if you squint you can make out the name “James” below the head, for the engraver Charles James. Campbell’s shop was apparently the business of Euphame Campbell, which makes this doubly interesting as it must have been very rare to have a token in the name of a woman.

The Archibald, Seedsman of Edinburgh Ha’penny. The coin features an Archibald family coat of arms on the front and an advert for his wares on the back. This Archibald was Joseph Archibald of West Nicolson Street, a burgess of the city, who kept a shop at 88 Chapel Street and a nursery at Lauriston, where a street, Archibald Place, is named for him.

Harrison of St. Leonards, Ha’penny. Henry Harrison was a bucklemaker on St. Leonard’s Hill. Harrison’s cypher is on the reverse, with the anchor of trade on the front.

Anderson, Leslie & Company Ha’penny from 1797, featuring the then new college building of the University on South Bridge. Again James Wright was the engraver. The wording around the edge of the reverse translates as “Nor let even the poor and infertile grounds lie neglected” and features a gardener. Not surprisingly given this design and wording, Anderson, Leslie & Company were also Seedsmen, based opposite the Mercat Cross in the Old Town.

The Scran archive has a wide range of photos of other Scottish Conder tokens (If you have a library card issued by most Scottish councils, you can log in using your library card number to get more meta content and bigger pictures) – click here.

Note to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.

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I do like seeing groups of coins on a theme. This week's E-Sylum has an article on Wrestlers on ancient coins - hat a great topic: https://www.coinbooks.org/v29/esylum_v29n16.html#article25

#Numismatics #CoinCollecting #Coins #Wrestling #AncientCoins #History #Histodons @numismatics @histodons

Coin & Gem Treasure Pack – Casual Game Currency Icons #2D #Gem #Ui #Coins #Treasure #Icons #Money #Chest #Gui #Item #Rpg #AssetStore

https://u3dn.com/packages/coin-and-gem-treasure-pack-casual-game-currency-icons-328468

#ProjectHalfDollarChaos : I recently realized I'm not entirely certain that I've ever gotten ice cream from an ice cream truck, so while I was at the park with Millie today I bought a frozen chocolate banana with a stack of dollar and half dollar coins.

He was stoked at getting such great change. #coins

Scam warning! Nothing new, but since a friend of mine nearly got scammed last night, I figured it was worth a periodic reminder: If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

They were looking for a particular coin - and found it - from a seemingly well known dealer, at a crazy low price. It was a time limited sale & they only had a few minutes to secure the deal. Feeling the pressure, they went for it. They paid & it showed as pending in the bank... but then the transaction disappeared & the money was still there. By this time, they started to realise it was a scam. Extremely luckily, the bank must have been aware of the site & blocked the transaction. Usually a savvy shopper, it shows how easily it can happen to anyone.

Meanwhile, here is my favourite, not-as-it-seems coin: A "Fouree" denarius from ancient #Rome: https://coinofnote.com/19-b-c-rome-augustus-denarius-fouree/

#Numismatics #Coins #CoinCollecting #Security #OnlineSafety #CyberSecurity #CyberSafety @numismatics

We all love #Roman #Coins and this week's E-Sylum has a piece on the coinage of Emperor Probus: https://www.coinbooks.org/v29/esylum_v29n15.html#article21

I have a few Roman coins: https://coinofnote.com/tag/rome/ - though none gold like this double Aureus (and I definitely don't have a spare $26,000 for a coin like this, but I do appreciate it).

#Numismatics #CoinCollecting #History #Histodons #AncientCoins @numismatics @histodons

Am I stoked about the idea of a $2.50 coin? Absolutely.

Am I surprised that the year 2026 somehow snuck up on Congress and we've made it to April and they're still working on passing instructions to the mint to think about it? Absolutely not.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/5616
#coins