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England - 1792

Rochdale

Obverse:

Side view of a weaver at work in his loom.

Size:

29 mm.

Edge:

PAYABLE AT THE WAREHOUSE OF JOHN KERSHAW

Reverse:

Arms: (Sable, a chevron ermine, between two habicks in chief argent; and a teasel, in base, slipped or), and Crest: (On a wreath a mount vert [omitted on the token], thereon a ram statant, or), of the Clothworkers' Company.

Legend:

ROCHDALE HALFPENNY .1792

Vern's Comments:

Wyon; manufacturer, Kempson. A fine token, apart from the omission of the crest. Massive. One ton struck. Common.

Comments. The arts of dressing flax and wool were known in Britain before the arrival of Caesar, though according to him the islanders did not weave. An Imperial manufactory was later established at Winchester for making woollen and linen cloth for the Roman Army in Britain.

The reverse shows the Arms of the Clothworkers' Company who were incorporated by letters patent in 1482 under the style of "The Fraternity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin of the Sheermen of London" (cloth-sheermen sheered worsteds, stamins, fustians and other woollen cloths, and must not be confused with sheep-shearers). The letters patent were confirmed by Henry VIII. They were incorporated under the name of the Clothworkers by Queen Elizabeth I, and confirmed by Charles I in 1634. The Arms were granted by Henry VIII, and the Crest and Supporters by Elizabeth, at the visitation of London in 1645.

The teasel was used for gigging, or raising the surface of the cloth, and the habick was used in dressing it.

Rochdale is chiefly in the hundred of Salford in the southern division of Lancashire, but it is partly in the Wapentake (or hundred) of Agbrigg, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, though the civil parish is wholly in the former county.

J. Westwood, Jun. issued "half-halfpennies" of this token, dated 1791, 1792 (D&H 156-7).

Commercial Coins 1787-1804., pp. 90-91

England — Lancashire

D & H 145 — Rochdale

Bell Pg: 90-91

O: The line cuts the terminal of L on left.

A. 88

R: As last.

E: PAYABLE AT THE WAREHOUSE OF JOHN KERSHAW

Rochdale