The ‘Royal Berkshire’ Collection of Berkshire Tokens, Tickets and Passes

Foreword

Formed largely between 1965 and 1995, with a few judicial additions since, this portion of the so-called ‘Royal Berkshire’ collection of tokens is the most important and wide-ranging cabinet for the county of Berkshire that has ever been put together by a private individual. Consisting of 374 17th century issues, plus a further 189 from the 18th to the 20th centuries, the owner, well-known to the principal dealers, diligently pursued opportunities to buy pieces from a range of sources. Even so, some 17th century issues continued to elude him so there are gaps in this section of the collection; he was, however, able to secure most of the pieces he needed from the fabled Norweb collection of 291 pieces that were not required for the National Collection and, along the way, some of the 181 tokens put together by Barzillai Lowsley, the first numismatist to study the county’s tokens in any depth. Regretfully, the county still lacks a modern illustrated reference, and one hopes that the appearance of this collection will help to lead to such a volume one day.

Of the later issues, pride of place belongs to the superb Reading gold 40 shillings issued by John Monck (Lot 26 and front cover); bought 55 years ago, very few of the original issue of 200 survive, but an even greater rarity is the companion silver 40 shillings (Lot 27).

NB: This collection, and the ownership of it, is not related in any way to that with a similar moniker offered by St James’s Auctions on 24 February 2022.
P.J.P-M.