pany whose trade is chiefly in it; brass is objectionable on account of the smell; copper is the fittest metal; a contract should be made with Sweden for supply thereof, and then it should be coined and issued at so little increase of price as to make counterfeiting disadvantageous. To avoid danger of a glut, the Mint should be always ready to exchange farthings for silver money, if requested, and should forbear to make more than demanded: moneys made of mixed metals would be expensive, and would not answer. As to small silver moneys, the charge of coinage in lesser pieces being greater in proportion than larger, he suggests that coins of pence, 5 farthings, three half-pence, 7 farthings, &c., be made, so as to obtain change without use of silver pieces smaller than a penny." 1665 (?).-Petitions. Possess large "John Harwar and others to the King and Council. quantities of brass and copper tokens, pence, half-pence and farthings, which the owners now refuse to receive back, saying they are exempted therefrom by His Majesty's pardon of such offenders. Request some means of redress to prevent their utter ruin." 1667, Jan. 4. "Order at general meeting of the Fishing Company approving the proposals of Sir Edw. Ford, and the petition grounded thereon, and appointing a committee to present the same to the King, and to prepare arguments in its favour, and attend the Council to speak in its defence. Annexing, "I. Petition of the Governor and Company of the Royal Fishing to the King, for a grant of the sole power of coining and issuing farthings, not to be counterfeited, according to a proposition made by Sir Edw. Ford, he giving security to prevent the export of gold and silver by importation of counterfeit farthings; to hinder prejudice to the people, by taking back farthings at same rate; to give 21s. worth of farthings for 20s. silver, and 5s. out of every 20s. to the Fishing Company. "II. Statement of the inconvenience and losses resulting from the issue of tradesmen's tokens, especially in the late contagion and fire, and yet that the profits of them are such that they are made, in spite of an order to the contrary." DESCRIPTION OF A COINING PRESS FOR TOKENS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. IN the Gentleman's Magazine, November, 1757, there is a description of a press used for coining halfpenny tokens which were issued in the Borough of Chesterfield, in Derbyshire, by Mr. Edward Wood, an apothecary: "The press consisted of four pieces of good oak, not less than four inches thick, and very strongly dove-tailed together. In the upper cross-piece was fastened an iron box with a female screw, through which there passed a stout iron screw of an inch or more diameter, to the bottom of which was fixed one of the dies; whilst the other was received into a square hole made in the bottom crosspiece, where it lay very steady as in a proper bed. The screw was wrought by hand, in the manner of a capstan, by means of four handles affixed to the top of it, of about nine inches long each. And thus, after the copper was reduced to a proper thickness, shorn to a size, and commodiously rounded, many hundreds of halfpence might be coined, by two persons, in a very short time, by a man we will suppose to ply the screw, and a woman or a boy to put on and take off the pieces. And yet I assure you, sir, these Chesterfield halfpennies were extremely well-struck. Signed S. P. [Samuel Pegge.]” The press and dies were found in the house of the grandson of Edward Wood, who issued the following token : O. EDWARD. WOOD = The Apothecaries' Arms. R. In. Chesterfield. His. Halfe. Penny (in four lines). Bedfordshire. NUMBER OF TOKENS ISSUED NUMBER OF TOWNS, ETC., ISSUING TOKENS TOWN PIECES ISSUED AT BIGGLESWADE, LANGFORD Sub-Editor and Collaborateur : Jos. HIGHT BLUNDELL, ESQ., . 107 38 2 Traders' Tokens ISSUED IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. ENGLAND. Bedfordshire. THE tokens of this county consist of halfpennies and farthings, which range from 1652 to 1671. There are Town-pieces of Biggleswade and Langford. Many of the Bedford notes were originally compiled by Admiral Smyth, F.S.A., and have been largely added to. The list of places issuing tokens is increased in this edition by the following names: Clifton, Cardington, Cople, Goldington, Henlow, Kempston, Oakley, Silsoe, Stevington, and Upper Dean, and forty-two new tokens in all are added to the county, while very many corrections of misprints and errors in the first edition have been made. Many of the notes on the issuers are of Thomas the sonn of Tho Harvey was baptized the same tyme as the other two wase which is the 27 aprill 1663. 2. O. IOHN. IMPIEIL. DRES=I. A. I BARTON IN THE CLAY. 3. O. WILLIAM. HOPKINS = HIS HALFE PENY R. BARTON. IN THE. CLAY W. E. H BEDFORD. 4. O. PAVLL. BAMFORTH = P.E.B R. IN. BEDFORD. 1665 = P. E. B The Bamforths of Bedford were highly respectable; and on the registers "Mr." is always prefixed to their name. They left several legacies to the poor of the borough, which are still enjoyed; but the family has disappeared since about 1725, |