British Trade Tokens, Tickets and Passes

LONDON, Charing Cross, National Political Union, 1831, silver, bundle of sticks, union is power, power and union are happiness, rev. legend, 29mm, 12.15g (W 1945 [not seen]; D & W 168/515). Extremely fine and toned, very rare £100-£150

The National Political Union, presided over by Sir Francis Burdett (1770-1844), was established in October 1831 by the social reformer Francis Place (1771-1854), following the rejection by the House of Lords of the Reform Bill. Place, a member of the token-issuing London Corresponding Society, modelled it on the Birmingham Political Union, intending it both as a co-ordinating body for the country’s political unions and an outlet for London radicals. A subsequent government ban on umbrella organisations led to a widespread series of protests in May 1832, the effects of which led to the eventual passing of the Reform Bill.