English, Scottish and World Coins. Tokens, Tickets and Passes. Historical and Art Medals. World Banknotes

17th Century Tokens, Chick Lane [West Smithfield], John Fishwick, Farthing, 0.57g/3h (D 608A, recorded from this specimen). Good fine, the only known specimen (£140-180)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of London 17th Century Tokens formed by the late Mrs Dora Harris.

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Provenance:
Found in the R. Thames near Custom House Quay, 1983; bt R. Sharman October 1983.

The tavern sign, a cat sat in a boat with a catherine-wheel as the helm, is an attempt at the transmutation of the sign of the catherine-wheel. Religious signs such as this were vigorously suppressed during the Commonwealth period. For further details, see R. Sharman, ‘More unpublished seventeenth-century tokens recovered from the Thames’ (TCSB vol.4 no.1, Winter 1984)