David Brandon Griffiths (1940-2011)
David Griffiths was born in Conway, North Wales, on 8 November 1940, moving to London when he was five. Like many expatriates, he became very keen to retain his links with his mother country, and in addition to representing it at athletics in sprint events, he realised how interesting it was to link local history with collecting.
Initially he collected Welsh 17th century tokens, triggered by the 1973 publication of George Boon’s book on the subject. But, finding out how much individual 17th century tokens cost and, encouraged by Monica Bussell (1906-74) at Seaby’s, David decided to start collecting Welsh 18th century tokens, principally Anglesey. He put together what is believed to be the largest collection of these pieces ever assembled, which was sold by DNW in 2014 as part of the current dispersal of David’s collection, begun in 2011.
The present element of the collection being offered spans the range of tokens issued by or for numismatists, a particular interest of David’s during his 38 years of collecting this material. The following 124 lots embrace the largest such collection of this material ever offered in one auction in modern times, even exceeding the notable Noble collection sold in 1999, from which a number of pieces here derive. The late Siegfried Schwer (1936-2006) shared David’s special interest in them and was the source of a number of acquisitions from the early 1980s. Provenance was important to David and there are pieces here from many of the significant dispersals of tokens held over the last century.
A regular at the annual British Token Congress for many years, David single-handedly ran the 1998 event at Hemel Hempstead and was a co-organiser of the Congress when it visited Warwick in 2008. David was principal of a firm of chartered accountants and, apart from coins, had many other interests, principally politics, and was a long-term Liberal Democrat, contesting two parliamentary and two European seats. He was a former treasurer of the Liberal Democrats and Liberal International, and for many years treasurer of the National Benevolent Fund for the Aged. Away from business, he followed the fortunes of his beloved Queens Park Rangers football club in west London and was a regular at Loftus Road.
Sadly, David succumbed to a lengthy illness on 3 September 2011, leaving a son, Gareth, daughter Justine and three grandchildren. A regular attender at almost all the significant British token auctions for almost 30 years, he was a familiar figure who plotted new acquisitions, whether in the saleroom or from a dealer’s list, with an assiduous purpose, set himself limits and was not often bested for something he really wanted.
Peter Preston-Morley
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