PREVIEW: BRITISH TOKENS, TICKETS AND PASSES 24 JANUARY

The late David Griffiths spent more than 35 years building what became the best collection of 17th century tokens from the county of Hertfordshire. Noonans will offer 240 in this sale.

Two highlights come in heart-shaped form. The first was minted for Andrew Wootton, a tallow chandler from Buntingford in the north-east of the county and dated 1669. The estimate is £500-700.

The second, also dated for 1669, is a halfpenny token for James Hannell of Redbourn, a village north of St Albans. While little is known about Wootton, Hannell ran an inn called The Woolpack or Woolsack until 1692, inheriting the business from his wife’s father, Barnabas Hurst. The token features a woolsack on the obverse. The estimate is £400-500.

As the Griffiths collection illustrates, widespread illiteracy meant that some tokens carried an image relating to the issuer’s business, just as shop signs did, with many being taverns or inns. Among the lots offered here are farthing and halfpenny tokens depicting clay pipes, hats, sugar loafs (for grocers) and even a lamb and flag.

John Skidmore of Rickmansworth (lot 93) was a tallow chandler and mercer, and his halfpenny bears the arms of the mercers on the obverse. According to the Skidmore family archives, the two different dies from which the obverses were struck remain with the family, descending through the eldest son in each generation.

Skidmore, who became a wealthy landowner, owned Basing House in Rickmansworth, which he leased to the Quaker statesman and founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, for £40 a year.