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England - 1794

William Pitt and the Cinque Ports

Obverse:

Bust of Rt. Hon. W. Pitt. The Prime Minister.

Legend:

THE R. HON. W. PITT. LORD WARDEN CINQUE PORTS:

Edge:

PAYABLE IN LANCASTER LONDON OR BRISTOL.

Reverse:

A shield bearing a device which appears to have been taken from the Corporation seal of the Borough of Dover. (A Castle triple towered with the portcullis up, and issuant therefrom, to the left, a horseman, to whom a naked figure is kneeling: impaling a vessel with one mast, afloat, with sails furled and colours flying.)

Legend:

CINQUE PORTS TOKEN PAYABLE AT DOVER:

Exergue:

Above the shield: "17 - 94".

Vern's Comments:

Edge: AT HORN'S LIBRARY the remainder ornamental engraving.
This edge variant: PAYABLE IN LANCASTER LONDON OR BRISTOL
Diesinker, Dixon; manufacturer, Lutwyche, four cwts. struck. Common.

Comments. John Horn was a freeholder with a business as a stationer and perfumer. He was also an organist and the proprietor of the Apollo circulating library and Public Reading Room at King's Street in the market place, Dover. This handsome room was furnished with musical instruments including a very fine harpsichord, and became a fashionable lounge for the visitors to this watering place. Horn's son later became a partner, and the firm eventually Horn and Adlard.

There are other tokens, D&H 17, 18, which have been attributed to John Horn; Diesinker, Dixon; manufacturer, Lutwyche; but the workmanship is greatly inferior, and the dies are said to have failed after only a few impressions. They never circulated as currency, and are probably specious coins made for sale to collectors.

William Pitt was appointed Constable of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports by Patent on August 18th, 1792, an appointment of high honour and trust. The Cinque Ports were Hastings, Sandwich, Dover, Romney and Hythe, with the addition of the two ancient towns of Rye and Winchelsea added as Principals, and various other ports as Members. The Lord Warden was both Chancellor and Admiral of the Confederation and also Constable of Dover Castle which was his residence, and in earlier times, his stronghold.

Under the Romans a Count of the Sea Coast protected the southern shores of Britain, and had a standing army under his command. During the Saxon Heptarchy each king protected his own coast, but when England was unified under a single monarch the Cinque Ports contributed so frequently to the fleets fitted out to repel the Danes that Edward the Confessor granted them many privileges and immunities, which were confirmed by William the Conqueror, who also appointed the first Constable of Dover Castle, and a Governor of the Cinque Ports. In succeeding reigns these privileges were upheld by the sovereigns in return for the shipping supplied by these ports in time of war, both for defence of the coast and the transport of troops and the king's person. The last charter granted to them was by Charles II, and confirmed by James II.

There was a priory of St. Martin in Dover, and the reverse of the token, derived from the Corporation seal of the town, refers to the legend of this saint who gave away his garments to the poor, retaining only his cloak, but when he was met by a naked beggar at the gates of Amiens, St. Martin immediately cut his cloak in half to share it with this new unfortunate.

The rest of the design at first glance simulates the device of a Cinque Port; but closer inspection reveals that the ship is not an antique English Round Ship, but a small coastal vessel flying a Union Jack.

Commercial Coins 1787-1804., pp. 69-71

England — Kent

D & H 16a — Dover

Bell Pg: 69-71

O: Bust to right. THE. R. HON. W. PITT, &c.

A. 16a

R: The arms of Dover. 1794. CINQUE PORTS TOKEN PAYABLE AT DOVER :

E: PAYABLE IN LANCASTER LONDON OR BRISTOL.