By Mr. William Boyne, F.S.A. 79 



The Tokens were in circulation exactly a quarter of a century ; 

 they originated with a public necessity, but in the end became a 

 nuisance ; they were issued by nearly every tradesman as a kind 

 of advertisement, and being payable only at the shop of the issuer, 

 they were very inconvenient. The Government had for some time 

 intended the circulation of Royal copper money, as we have pat- 

 tern-pieces of half- pennies and farthings of the year 1665 ; but it 

 was not until the year 1672 that the farthings of Charles II., of a 

 similar size to those of the present day, were ready for circulation. 

 Tradesman's Tokens were then put down by a stringent Proclama- 

 tion dated 16th August 1672. A few attempts were made to con- 

 tinue them, but the threat of Government proceedings against the 

 offenders effectually suppressed them, and we hear no more of them 

 in England. In Ireland the latest circulation was in 1679. 



On the Tokens the initial of the surname is usually placed over 

 those of the Christian names of the husband and wife : though 

 sometimes the wife's initial is at the top, sometimes the three 

 initials are in a line, the middle one being the surname, and at 

 other times the surname is at the bottom . For the convenience of 

 printing, the three initials are placed in one line. 



The contractions used are, 0. for the Obverse side of the Token, 

 R. for the Reverse; the mark=signifies that what follows it is in the 

 field or central part of the Token ; 1, §, and j, signify Penny, Half- 

 penny, and Farthing, showing the size of the piece. 



Among the Wiltshire Tokens, which are all of an ordinary cha- 

 racter, there are no Pennies. They commence early, one of them 

 (John Gage of Bradford) bearing the date of 1649, and they con- 

 tinue to 1671, almost the last year Tokens were permitted to cir- 

 culate. There are corporation-pieces of Marlborough and Salisbury. 



ALDBOURNE. 



1. 0. IOHN . ADEE. OF . ALBOKN = I . A. i 



R. in . WILTBHXEBE . 1656 = Three rabbits feeding. 



2. O. UICIIAHD . CLAKK . IX = 1658. I 

 H. ALIiOUN . WXLTSHEB = B . E . C. 



