World Tokens

St Bartholomew, W. Beal, aluminium Salt tally by Katz, c. 1935, w. beal, rev. bon pour un baril de sel, 19mm, 0.58g/12h (Eckardt, TAMS Journal, December 1987; Ford 672; Tankersley 369). Light surface corrosion, otherwise about very fine £40-60

Provenance: From a small hoard of these pieces found by K.V. Eckardt at the salt ponds of La Grande Salines, August 1975; gift of K.V. Eckardt.

The swamp lands at La Grande Saline were first exploited for salt during the Swedish occupation of the island, but because prices could not compete with salt mined from other neighbouring islands the trade collapsed in 1872. Taken over by France, the French government incentivised those on St Barts to restart the business, but after a cyclone in 1924 trade collapsed until William Beal took over the concession in the early 1930s. The largely female workforce worked an oppressive salt harvesting ‘season’ of 3 months. The trade ceased in 1972