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Mike 's Blog

21 Apr 2023

"God Save The King" 1795 Forster , Die Sinker

Tokens | Mike

Hi everyone. Hope your all doing well. This token is related to England and the U.S. First I apologize for not blogging. Were redoing some of the rooms. Now if you look at the obverse you see the notes to England's National Anthem. "God Save The King". Or when its a Queen that is put in. No one knows who wrote it. There are plenty of composers who's name cone up. Wikipedia says Beethoven. No he didn't write it. That's why I stay away from it.There are so many writers I can't name them all. They agree it as made around 1795. Its the oldest anthem in the world. As a matter if fact it was second to our national anthem. You see the words were changed when it got to the states. You young kids would not remember it. When I was in school we sang every morning My Country Tis of Thee Great land of liberty !! It goes on . As time went on the National Anthem was sang before the school day started. I remember then we said a short prayer. Even today Congress starts the day with a prayer by a religious person. Funny we don't sing or pray but the country doesn't start the day with out saying ashort prayer. I will not get political. ..The great thing Foster did when he made this token was to put every note on it. The first verse only . But all the singing and praying are gone. All we were doing was given thanks for the country we lived in. Others saw it a different way. Now some schools have a moment of silence. So I hope you have learned about school in the 1950's and sixtys. It only took two minutes. And they took it away in the name of freedom. I don't get it.!!

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10 Apr 2023

St. John's Church D&H-262 1/2 P. Warwickshire Coventry

Tokens | Mike

Hi my friend's hope all is well. Today I will give some insight to one of my favorite tokens St.John's Church. First the label.One it tells you what it is. Then you will see D&H -262 1/2 P. This stands for D- Dalton & H- Hammer then it has an E this for edge writing. If its a Coventry it will say that. It also has Warwickshire the county were it was built.Dalton and Hammer is a reference book. Each token has a number and were it comes from The edge writing is very important. It tells you were to redeem it for items such as food and clothes. It also determines value. The 1/2 P means half penny. They made 1/2 and one penny.

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04 Apr 2023

Peter Kempson Bablake Hospital

Tokens | Mike

Hi everyone. Hope all is well! I know some of you have read my articles on the Gates of Coventry. Thanks to coins by Gary and Mokie. Well Kempson also did buildings. He did a set on London 32 tokens. The set of Coventry had 19 tokens. He also did tokens of most of England. One of the greatest engravers of his time. His dedication to detail was beyond understanding. You can count the bricks on the road. The different wood in a fence. The windows and the supports.

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25 Nov 2022

The December Numismatist 2022 I Was Published.

Tokens | Mike

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!. Now get ready for sandwiches!! Last October I had a member telling me to submit an article to the Numismatist. I kept saying no. Well he was very persistent. So he told me what I had to do and I sent it in. It took Mr. Caleb the editor of the magazine to email me one day. He informed me the article was very good and they wanted my permission to to print it!. He asked if I wanted to get paid or donate the money. I donated it to the yngs. This blog is different than other. It tells collector's what they should do to get published. It can help. And ask me questions!! I was schocked. They were going to publish my article! I had pictures to take. So my friend Mokie said Gary (coinsbygary) was a professional photographer. Now I had to send him the five tokens. I was a wreck mailing these. They are one of a kind part of Peter Kempsons Tokens of Coventry. I would not be able to get another of each. They came back I was so relieved. Gary Herman did a fantastic job. Remember these are from 1797.

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23 Nov 2022

Civil War Tokens Part Three

Tokens | Mike

Hi everyone hope all is well. This is the last part of the civil war tokens. These tokens are slabbed . Now that's because some are a rare six,five and a four. Also as I stated in part two a rarity 1 graded a MS 63 means more money. It can get you close to two hundred dollars. ...Now that depends on the token what kind of metal they used and they used all the metals except gold. You might get a token with gold overlay. But I'm talking from copper to tin.If a different metal was used lets say brass there will be a letter that stands for brass.Metal can mean a rarity 1 to a 10.!!!

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08 Nov 2022

What Are Civil War Tokens?

Tokens | Mike

Hi I hope everyone is doing fine. This will be done in parts. There is so much information on these. These were made during the Civil War because on July 17, 1862 the United States went coinless! That's right. People horded all the change. This is after on February 25,1862 the government made 150,000,000 in legal tender notes redeemable for gold and silver. Its expensive to run a war. It was costing Lincoln one million dollars a day to keep the army fighting and that wasn't enough! That's right people hoarded all the change they could get. You couldn't get a hair cut nothing. So the government allotted another 150,000,000 of legal tender. This was to remedy the shortage or least part of it. War will do this to a country. They also made stamps legal tender up to five dollars. To say the country was in bad shape was an understatement. In comes some ideas. A gentleman by the name of John Gault came to N.Y from Boston he put stamps in round brass pieces. They were made 1 cent 3 cents five cents 10cents and 90 cents. This helped a little. Today these are very expensive. .Now the tokens started to show up. They were made of two dies one for the obverse and one for the reverse.two brothers started catalogue these they were George Fuld and his brother Melvin. Years later Q. David Bowers came up with two books on these tokens and artifacts. The soldiers carried them till they could mail them home so the family could buy items with them. There were two types Political and store cards(tokens). The store name was on the token.

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23 Oct 2022

Swanswell Gate Built 1440

Tokens | Mike

Hi everyone. Hope those at the show had a great time. Now down to business. A coin collector working on a set does not just end his research. I kept going because I knew there were more gates in Coventry. But were is the Token.Kempeson didn't make a token of all the gates. ....You see he had to limit his set. And with all the gates he had to choose. Now the gate below was ma built in 1440. Or about that time. You see a photo of it in 1910. It looks pretty beat up. But this gate originally was called the privy gate the name changed laterto Swanswell Gate . One picture shows a a set of stairs that go to the top!!.I would love to see the view.

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14 Oct 2022

The Tudors Cardinal Wolsey

Tokens | Mike

Hi everyone ! I hope your all ok! Now I don't know how many of you saw the show 'The Tudors '. It was a mini series based on the reign of the one and only Henry The V111. The Tudor monarchy. This series was based on fiction and nonfiction. They did this with most movies of that time period. Take Braveheart. Were William Wallace who was real sacked York. The Vikings sacked York. And he only won one battle. Sorry to disappoint you guys. It was another movie made of fiction and nonfiction.. Now the token below is one of my favorites. The likeness of the Cardinal was done from a painting and put on copper.Its uncanny how good the engraver did this. I believe it was Wyon. I will check that. Since my blogs come from history. The gate was on the reverse was called Wolsey Gate. He was born in Ipswich Suffolk. His first name was Thomas. Born in 1475 and died in 1530. The same town as James Conder who started categorizing them. This token is a penny!! Now it was said Henry ruled the Kingdom but Wolsey called the shots. King Henry was very upset he could not get a divorce so he could marry again. He was the Chancellor of England and had more going on than the King had. And that was allot. He had an illegitimate son who would travel with him when he went to collect taxes from the Abbeys and church's. This money went to good use his charity's. Now there was allot of rumor that King Henry disliked the Cardinal. This was not true. King Henry liked most of his fund raisers. He did get a divorce from Pope Clement V11. But not the one he wanted. Now this is were it starts to break up the close friendship. Orders went out that the Cardinal had to return to London for treason. Now the show would have you think he committed suicide in the Tower of London. This also is not true.. Coming back to London the Cardinal became very sick . He was in the town of Leicester and had to stop It was dysentery. It caused his death. He spoke at length on his death bed but the sentence most remembered for is"If I treated My God as I did My King perhaps I would not have this gray hair" ....So there is a short list of how he lived and died. He had many beheaded. He stole all the money he could but was glorified in the series The Tudors. The token was made.some two hundred years after his death. But it shows the impact one man had over a King and a Country. The detail in the gate is as I always say remarkable. His likeness also. I sent it to NGC it came back Red brown MS 64. Please click on the pictures of the token on his face and the gate and see the work that went into it. I hope you enjoyed this little bit of history. I forgot his crest Most of those in the Monarchy had there family crest. It showed how.powerful you were. In earlier days the crest stood for the family every family had one I have a family crest. Thanks and enjoy!!

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06 Oct 2022

CONDER TOKENS AND THERE BUILDINGS

Tokens | Mike

Hi everyone hope you all are well. This will be a short blog to explain the buildings and there tokens. Now if you didn't read the first blog please read it so you get a better understanding of these beautiful tokens. Now the engravers back then had terrific talent. Now I only picked two tokens and the buildings they represent. I said that the engravers worked on every detail. .....I have many more of buildings still standing the one St.Johns still is in use today .I wrote a journal about St. Johns and don't you know I received a response from someone who went there when it was a high school. Its a church again! Built in the 1300's. I stated that they were great architectures these are two examples. There are many many more.

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05 Oct 2022

WHAT ARE CONDER TOKENS

Tokens | Mike

Well I will try and keep this short. Simply because once I start writing about them I can't stop. Conder Tokens were made mostly in the 1700's in England. They did for the English what civil war tokens did for us. You see England was involved in many wars. The French the Spanish and us. This almost bankrupt the country.So a gentleman named Matthew Bolton who owned the Soho mint began to make these tokens so they could be redeemed for basic items. That information was on the edge. Now not all had edge writing. They were made in half penny's and pennys. Saint Michaels Cathedral below is very large that's a penny.

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