British Trade Tokens, Tickets and Passes

John Whitmore

John Whitmore, born on Christmas Eve 1931, developed an interest in collecting at an early age. Like most young boys of his era, stamps, cigarette cards, football and cricket programmes were all deemed collectable, but even then John had an eye for something different. At six years old his passion was bus tickets, insisting on diving under hedges to retrieve discarded ones just in case they were different to those he had. That’s how it was for John, everything was collectable, and with an eye for something a bit different collecting grew into a lifelong enthusiasm.

Not long after John and Stella were married coins came to his notice. He had read an article in a Birmingham newspaper about pre-1947 silver, and the rarity of certain dates. From then on, all his loose change was checked, and scarce dates were removed. This collection grew to be quite sizeable and, keen to learn more, he joined the Birmingham Numismatic Society. This made him aware that other collectors would be interested in his duplicates, so he prepared a list of those he wanted to sell and advertised the list in the coin magazines of the day. The response was so successful that he began to invest in better specimens and widened his scope and thus, with Stella helping by typing up the lists, ‘Lickey Coins’ came into being in 1969. Older collectors may remember the amusing adverts that appeared in the magazines, alerting them to the imminent arrival of the latest list. In those days it was posted, no on-online purchasing then!

This early success enabled him, after some years, to leave his job as a senior tax inspector in the civil service and turn his hobby into a business. In 1983 the family moved from near the Lickey Hills to the Malvern Hills, so Lickey Coins became ‘Whitmore’ and with a reputation for knowing what his customers wanted, he gained a loyal and much-loved customer base. Becoming aware of tokens and, specifically, those of inns, played into his passion for social history and eventually these became his main area of collection. One particular highlight was the discovery of an octagonal Whitmore token issued by his great-grandfather, also named John, who, in the 1870s, ran the Village Inn at Beoley, on the border with Warwickshire just north of Redditch.

A vibrant and active member of the coin trade in his day, he was an early member of the British Numismatic Trade Association (BNTA). His civil service background enabled him to lead discussions with the Treasury on behalf of the BNTA regarding the implementation of VAT. He was influential in the development of the Association, serving on its council and many of its committees, and was its honorary treasurer for many years. In 1999 he was granted honorary life membership, one of only four people to be so honoured in the history of the organisation.

As John’s collection grew, he wanted to ensure that the wider numismatic world would benefit from his years of research, so he wrote and self-published several books based on his collection. Most notable are the unofficial farthing series and his magnum opus, The Token Collectors Companion.

Away from coins his interests were varied and included classical music, cricket, sci-fi, ornithology – and woe betide anyone who rang him when The Archers programme was on the radio in the evening. He and Stella also enjoyed visiting places to see interesting fauna and flora, both in Britain and abroad.

His family are extremely proud of what John achieved throughout his life, imparting his knowledge via his books, continuing his business producing Whitmore catalogues and continuing to collect until he died on 7 August 2016, aged 84. But they know it would have been his wish to share his private collection. This is why they are now making it available at auction so those who share his passion can enjoy it as much as he did. As Paul Withers has written elsewhere, the numismatic world is richer because of John’s contribution to it and we are all poorer for his passing, but those who knew him will remember him with pleasure.

Stella Whitmore, Diana Boardman, Jackie Skowron and Peter Preston-Morley

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