10p - Or A Brass Farthing (15 April 1977)

Imagine our predicament if there should ever be a severe shortage of 10p pieces.  What, for instance, would the borough council do then with their car parking slot machines?  Such a happening sounds bizarre.  Yet a similar kind of situation arose in this country, and not least locally, in the 17^th century.

Whether from shortage of a suitable metal or from gross under-estimating of requirements, the governments of that time rarely minted enough small change.  What people especially lacked was a coin representing a fourth of a penny.

But such a coin, the farthing, did not become an official fixed denomination until 1671.

The position became so bad that tradesmen began issuing tokens of their own as change.  They were usually valued at a fourth of a penny and the next time the customer called, the issuing trader accepted them for goods to that value.  The trader would also change them for official coinage on request.

The tokens were small and circular and were made of brass or of some other metal.  They were impressed with the name of the issuer, dated, and usually carried a device indicating the nature of the issuer’s trade.

These private tokens were dubbed “brass farthings” by the public at large.  They proliferated during the Civil War and during the Commonwealth that followed and no doubt were a great convenience for small, localised trading.  Then, in 1671, five years after the restoration of Charles II, it was decided to mint an official farthing.  All further private minting was banned under penalty.  After that, anything that was of negligible value became increasingly known as “not worth a brass farthing.”

More than 12,000 different 17^th century British tokens are known.  Buckinghamshire produced about 140.  Naturally, the market towns had the most issuers.  Newport Pagnell had 14, Aylesbury, Stony Stratford, Marlow and Chesham about 12 each, Buckingham about 10 and Fenny Stratford 4.

What is surprising is that so many small villages also had at least one issuer.  They included Woughton, Little Brickhill, Shenley, Little Horwood, Mursley and Newton Longville.  Some traders issued token halF-pennies as well as or instead of farthings, like Jeffrey Willison, of Newton, whose “halfe penny,” dated 1667, shows a slab of tobacco and two “Dick Turpin” pipes, indicating that he was a Tobacconist.

The first Bucks token was issued in 1651 by William Inns, of Fenny Stratford.  It gives no indication of his trade, but the Bletchley parish register describes a Williams Inns as a mercer (draper).  There are various registrations of this family between 1633 and 1690.

The next Fenny token was issued in 1656 by John Smallbons, a chapman and hatter.  The name first appears in the register in 1633 and there are 16 entries between then and 1664.

The third and fourth tokens were both issued by Robert Honnor, in 1665 and 1667 respectively.  They show the arms of the Grocers’ company.  The register has 25 entries of that family from 1636 to 1694.  A 1721 gravestone in Bletchley churchyard refers to Robert Honnor, “chandler and groaser,” aged 77 years.  This seems to imply that he was only 21 when he issued his first token.

All these three families qualified for the Hearth Tax in 1665, but none appears under Fenny Stratford in a list of freeholders and leaseholders for 1723 – an indication of how quickly fairly important families could come and go.  They could also have been affected by the Great Plague of 1665-66.

A Woughton token bears the name of William Coale and the arms of the Grocers’ company.  It is undated, but is likely to have been before 1699 as he was buried on April 30 that year.

Specimens of tokens are being dug up in gardens from time to time, but there is little chance of anyone ever finding a hoard.  When their use was made punishable, the issuing traders bought them in and had them melted down and disposed of for scrap metal.

But it is interesting to note how much a farthing was worth in those days.   Over 150 years later, in Victoria’s early years, half-farthings and even quarter-farthings were officially minted and so must have had some purchasing power.  A knowledgeable 1946 writer estimated that a farthing of the “brass farthing” era could have bought as much as 9d to 1s in 1946.  So I am probably underestimating rather than overestimating in putting today’s equivalent value as low as a florin, or a two-bob bit, or a 10p piece – whichever the old, the middle-aged or the young may like to think of it.