DORSET TOKENS AND MEDALS. 01 



as being preferable to tlic spurious imitations of the King's 

 money that flooded all the centres of trade. For a space of 

 nearly thirty years these local remedies, although of course never 

 legal tender, were tacitly permitted by the authorities, and it was 

 not until 1817 that an Act of Parliament prohibited the making 

 or circulating of tokens of copper or mixed metals after the 

 ist January, 181 8. A period of grace was, however, allowed for 

 the withdrawal of the pieces issued by the Overseers of Sheffield 

 and Birmingham, on account of the hardships that a summary 

 suppression would have caused, and the Act also preserved the 

 rights of the holders to present these promises to pay to the 

 original issuers. 



These tokens of the eighteenth century differed from the 

 earlier examples of the Restoration period in that they approx- 

 imated in size and weight to the regal copper money of the day ; 

 indeed, many of them were intrinsically worth their face values, 

 while their design and execution were frequently of high merit. 



The traders of Dorset confined themselves to halfpence and 

 farthings, of which the best known varieties are recorded in the 

 following list, mules * being omitted. All were struck in copper, 

 and sometimes bear inscriptions upon the edges. 



Blandford. 



I. obv: " W. Sanger. Tea-dealer." A pair of scales above a tea 

 chest or counter, oA which are sugar loaves and 

 canisters ; on the latter the figures 5 and 4. 

 rev: " Blanford. Halfpenny. 1798." "Pro bono publico," 



encircled by palm branches. (Plate I.) 

 edge : Milled ; also plain. Struck by P. Skidmore. 

 The Rector of Blandford was unable to find any information 

 as to this issuer, but the surname occurs in the town and 

 neighbourhood from 1700 onwards. 



* " Mules" = the name given to concoctions produced by the use of two odd 



