The Collection of Somerset 17th Century Tokens formed by David Young

David Young
I cannot remember a time when I was not collecting coins or tokens. Like many, my interest began with coins taken from change and the foreign coins which my Father brought back from his overseas trips. I was also fortunate that Fred Baldwin was a family friend who gave me books and coins, together with advice or assistance with identification. After I started working I began collecting English shillings and a holiday in Switzerland prompted a collection of Swiss coins.
Around 1970 I discovered tokens, eighteenth century at first and later those from the seventeenth century. Their main appeal at that time was that the tokens were cheaper than the coins; also the tokens were issued locally by an individual or business so that most of the pieces were different. So began the collection of Somerset tokens and by the time I moved to Somerset in 1976 I was collecting any token from that county. The Swiss coins and shillings were sold and the proceeds used to start the formation of a library of books on tokens. In 1990 Steve Minnitt and I published Tickets Checks & Passes from the County of Somerset, and it was while doing some research for this book that I came across the pleasure gardens and theatres in Bath.
While reading about Bath, the pleasure gardens of London were mentioned regularly and I
acquired the occasional token from one or other of the London gardens. These tickets seemed more personal as many of them were numbered or even named to an individual person. There was so much social history linked with the tickets and the more I learnt about the gardens and their tickets the more fascinated I became with them and the period in which they were used. So around 1996 I began collecting tickets for the London pleasure gardens and I was lucky enough to acquire a number of Vauxhall Garden tickets from the sale of Owen Parsons’ collection in 1998. Within a few years I was also colleting the tickets for the London theatres and other entertainments and over the last twenty years the collection has grown substantially.
I have enjoyed reading and researching the history of the various pleasure gardens, theatres and entertainments and how their tickets were used. As these pieces are unusual I
thought others may be interested to hear about them, so I have given a number of talks at the annual Token Congresses and have written articles for the Bulletin of the Token Corresponding Society and Coin News. These talks and articles have now covered most of the pieces in the collection, which is what I aimed to do when I started the talks. I feel now it is time to dispose of the collection and hope that others will find as much enjoyment in these pieces as I have.
This collection of Somerset 17th century tokens, largely put together between 1973 and 1988, is the most important holding of the county ever to have been dispersed by auction. Numbering 366 pieces, of which 294 are different, it may be compared to the collections put together by Henry Symonds (279 different pieces purchased by Baldwin in September 1928, not the pieces auctioned in 1973), the Norwebs (463, of which 251 were different, dispersed from 1994) and Ranulphus Carthew (196 different pieces offered by Seaby in March 1946 as a county group, which was later broken up). In all probability a number of tokens which used to belong to Symonds, and perhaps Carthew, and have since lost those provenances, are included here; a small quantity of Norweb tokens, principally civic issues, were acquired in 1994.
For the benefit of future students of the Somerset series, which is yet to be the subject of a modern study, the best specimen of each variant in the collection is illustrated on the Plates at the end of this section of the catalogue.
This offering compliments the earlier auction of Mr Young’s Somerset tokens of the 18th and 19th centuries (Baldwin, 11 October 1995).
Collection Information
This collection was sold on 1 October 2014.
Other Collections Sold in 2014
- The Late Jim Sazama Collection of Medieval Coins
- A Collection of Awards to the Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force
- Tokens from the Late David Griffiths Collection
- Collection of Jetons formed by the late George Berry
- Meritorious Service Medal Groups from the Collection of Ian McInnes
- A Small Collection of Medals to the Wiltshire Regiment
- A Collection of Great War Trios
- Medals to the R.F.C. and R.A.F. from the Collection Formed by the Late Squadron Leader David Haller
- A Small Collection of Medals to the Dorsetshire Regiment
- A Small Collection of Medals to the Wiltshire Yeomanry
- A Collection of New Zealand War Medals
- A Collection of Medals to the Indian Police
- British Coins from the Collection Originally formed by the late Arthur Lainchbury
- Coins, Tokens and Medals of the Caribbean from the late Raymond Brandon Collection
- Railroad Tallies of the USA from the late Raymond Brandon Collection
- World Coins and Tokens from the Collection formed by Allan Vayle
- British Historical Medals from the collection formed by the late Michael Ewing
- The Halbert Carmichael Collection of British Coins
- Silver Counters of the Van Der Passe School, from the Collection of Colin Narbeth
- British Medals from the Collection of the Revd. John Watson
- South African Coins, 1874-1902, from the Collection formed by the Late Dr. Frank Mitchell
- World Medals from the Collection of the Revd. John Watson
- A Collection of Medals for the Anglo-Boer War
- A Collection of Medals to the Royal Lancaster Regiment
- A Collection of Medals to the Black Watch
- British Coins from the Collection formed by Arthur M. Fitts III
- Miniature Medals from the Collection of Mark Cline
- A Collection of German Medal Groups
- World Coins from the Collection of the Late John Weibel
- A Collection of Coins of German East Africa
- The Anthony Govender Collection of South African Reserve Bank Proofs and Specimens
- The Collection of Somerset 17th Century Tokens formed by David Young
- The Collection of Southwark 17th Century Tokens formed by the late Sir Richard Hayward, C.B.E.
- The Collection of 19th Century Silver Tokens formed by the late Ivor Devereux
- Tokens from the Collection of M.J. Harris
- British Tokens from the Collection of Dr Ronald Ward
- Gaming Counters from the Colin Narbeth Collection
- The Collection of British Orders, Decorations and Medals formed by the late Fred Rockwood
- Roman Coins from the Collection Formed by the Late David Hendy
- British Coins from the Collection Formed by the Late Richard Law
- Tokens of Yorkshire from the Collection Formed by the Late Richard Law
- Medals of Yorkshire from the Collection Formed by the Late Richard Law
- The Collection of Imperial German Militaria formed by the late Stan Laver
- Coins of the Carlisle Mint from the Collection of Peter Cherry
- Countermarked Tokens from the Collection of Neil Beaton
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