Appendix: Notes on the Tokens and their Issuers 957+
The Parys Mine Co, formed in 1778, was jointly owned by the triumvirate of Rev Edward Hughes (1738-1813), of Amlwch and Greenfield Hall, Holywell; Thomas Williams (1737-1802), an attorney at Llanidan, MP for Great Marlow and later for Anglesey, the entrepreneurial ‘Copper King’ who was the prime move behind the token series; and John Dawes (1725-88), a London stockbroker. Williams’ mining, smelting and manufacturing empire stretched the breadth of North Wales and beyond; the Parys Mine Co also controlled its own smelting in South Wales and Lancashire and copper manufacture at Holywell. It seems likely that Milton’s patterns were produced at Westwood’s workshops in Great Charles street, Birmingham, towards the end of 1786 (Dykes, 2011, p.76). 959
The pennies with the value expressed as 1D above the cypher have been shown to be those coined at the Parys Mine Co’s manufacturing plant in the Greenfield Valley at Holywell, Flintshire, in the early months of 1787. The first 18th century token struck for general circulation was the lightweight penny (DH 9a, not present in the Brown collection), which was followed by strikings of DH 9 and DH 4, to the weight-standard of one ounce of copper per coin (Dykes, 2011, p.79). By May of that year Thomas Williams had moved production to Great Charles street, Birmingham. 983
DH 255 is a curious enigma in that it appears to have been the last token struck by Matthew Boulton for Thomas Williams. The order was completed by July 1792 (Doty, CTCJ February 1997, pp.22-3; Dykes, 2011, p.119). 986
Specimens of DH 252c were reputedly sold by William Williams from his St Martin’s Lane premises for 1s. each. 998
The latest informed thinking would suggest that Matthew Boulton’s first issue of halfpence for Thomas Williams, struck during the autumn and winter of 1789, were the full-weight pieces with the 25-acorn wreath (DH 358-64) (Vice, Format 38, April 1989, pp.2-9; Dykes, 2011, p.118). 1000
One of a series of 1790-dated patterns, struck in October of that year and using the then revolutionary single-segment collar, which produced truly round coins with an edge precisely at right angles to the surface (Leather, CTCJ Winter 2008/9, p.7). The Dumarest patterns were not liked by Thomas Williams, so J.G. Hancock’s druid was employed for the regular issues (see Lot 1001). 1001
Matthew Boulton’s second issue of halfpence for Thomas Williams are the first thoroughly modern coins in the history of the world (Doty, CTCJ Spring 2012, p.25). 1006
The Anglesey penny dated 1788, with PMS cypher, imitating the regular issues of the Parys Mine Co, was struck by John Westwood Jr in 1796 to the order of Samuel Solomon (1745- 1819), an eccentric Irish-born Jewish doctor resident in Tythebarn street, Liverpool, who had created a tonic cordial called the ‘Balm of Gilead’, said to cure all ills. Westwood obtained the coining business after Matthew Boulton declined it. The cypher was said to represent the initials of Potion Maker Solomon (Hawker, TCSB 9, pp. 14-17). For the latest research on the life of Solomon, see G.A. Sivan, Jewish Historical Studies, vol. 42, 2009. 1033-4
John Morgan (1739-1805), ironmaster and tin plate manufacturer, inherited considerable business interests in
Carmarthen and the surrounding area from his father in 1778; he was also proprietor of the Carmarthen Furnace Bank. His tokens were struck by the Hancock/Westwood consortium in Birmingham in 1792 (Dykes, 2011, pp.167-9). 1035
Although the token purports to have been issued by ‘Seth Roberts, ironmonger’ it is almost certainly a specious issue. 1036
William Taitt (1745-1815) of Dowlais, Richard Crawshay (1739- 1810) of Cyfarthfa and Samuel Homfray (1763-1822) of Penydarren, ironmasters, were for many years thought to have been the triumvirate behind the ‘Glamorgan’ halfpence (Dykes, SCMB 1976, pp.424-6), but as David Dykes has more recently shown (BNJ 2001, pp.124-7, and 2011, pp.192-4), J.S. Jorden’s father, William Jorden (†July 1814, aged 67), a Staffordshire ironmaster in the early 1780s who removed to South Wales, may have had a hand in their issue. John Voss (†October 1818), an entrepreneur who traded under the sign of the Golden Key, ran successful drapery and printing businesses in Swansea; his son, John Mathew Voss, was a partner in what was later to become the Swansea Bank. Although Voss’s tokens are dated 1796 they were in circulation by late autumn 1795 (Dykes, op. cit., p.126, and Dykes, 2011, pp.224-5). 1037-8
James Powell, wine and brandy importer and merchant, Abergavenny and Monmouth. 1045
Jerry and Sharon Bobbe theorized that all Aberdeen halfpence are overstruck on other issues (CTCJ November 1997, pp.40-1), a view with which the cataloguer would agree. 1046
William Durward, tea, coffee and sugar merchant, 50 High street. 1047
Patrick Wilson, partner in Smith & Wilson, linen manufacturers, East Mill, Brechin, also flourished as a bookseller in the town from 1793 to 1801. Some time after 1801 he called in the ‘Brechin Bawbees’ – a later author optimistically described them as ‘consequently very rare’ (D.H. Edwards, Historical Guide to Brechin, 4th edn, pp.267-8). Directories also show that a Patrick Wilson flourished as a bookseller in High street, Arbroath, from 1820 to 1852. 1048-51 William Croom, wholesale merchant of woollen, linen, watches and sundry articles, Union Hall, High street, ordered two batches of tokens from Matthew Boulton in December 1795 and February 1796, via the Birmingham factors Wilson & Smith (Doty, CTCJ September 1999, pp.22-7). He contacted Boulton for a further order in the summer of 1796 and requested a change in design, but Boulton’s quote for the work was higher than Croom was prepared to pay, so he placed his subsequent order with Peter Kempson. A close study of the reverse of DH 14 shows that it is almost the same as DH 13, except for the fact that some letters in the fifth line of the legend have been repositioned, as Doty had suspected (op. cit, p.25). For the full story of the ‘Infirmary’ halfpence, also struck by Kempson, see Dykes, SNC November 1998, pp.386-9, and 2011, pp.139-40. 1052 P. Kirkpatrick, grocer, tea and spirit merchant. 1053
Alexander Molison (†1798), merchant; his tokens were the first of a series inspired by the Dundee numismatist James Wright Jr (Dykes, 2011, p.260). John Pilmer, grocer, Church lane. Alexander Swap & Co, merchants, Overgate. 1054
Thomas Webster Jr, Heathfield House, Hawkhill, partner in
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