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. 

    ...Now I saw one for the first time and I wanted to collect  them. There were many great engravers back then and they didn't have the tools they had today. They started to be called art in copper!.That's because the detail these great engravers made. You can count the number of windows. How many bricks in  the road. It was incredible and must of taken weeks to make a die.

           There is a reference book written by Dalton and Hammer. It takes time to learn how to use it. They cataloged all the tokens. I had a friend send me this book. Looking thru it I couldn't believe what I was seeing. They were works of art. I came across one of the great engravers named Peter Kempson. He did two sets. On of the Buildings of London which had 32 tokens. And one of Coventry England. That had 19. 

         I said that will be easy. Little did I know it would take five years of searching for these 19. The last one took two years. Now as I would get four together I would send them into N.G.C. now these were 225 years old. I will try and this short. They all  came back MS 63 to 66 some red brown and a proof like. Imagine a proof life on copper.

     Well it took five years . That's right five years. Two to find the last one. Upon completion of the set N.G.C said send them back. So I did. About two weeks later I received them and my name was  on the label. I was shocked. It turns out that this is the only set completed by Kempson. Now N.G.C. could not put that on the label since there might be a set  somewhere. Till now there is none.
      ...In my research I found collectors of that time also collected these. Simply for there beauty. I said if they look this well now imagine what they looked like back then. Now Kempson did a set of 19 Handel reverses. There will be no set of these. But there very expensive. I have four and that's it. There is one below. 

   ...Now this was short. To really get into them I will write a few blogs and more tokens so you can see the beauty that I see. They sell from 40.00 to thousands. A token of G.Washington MS 61 sold for 25,000 dollars. So they are priced according to the market price. I have not found a price book. People and collector's know the price based on condition and rarity and the engraver. 
    ...I hope you got an idea what these are about. But there is so much more. I will update you in the future so you understand why these only sell at auction. And sometimes a collector will have A table at a show. But not of the best and not the bad. Its up to your taste of what you like. I have to stop now. Stay well and thanks. Mike.   Saint Michaels is was in Coventry but a penny therefore it could not go in the set. The set was all half pennys! Sad it stood for centuries and it was destroyed in WW11.

   ....Please excuse the picture of the label MS 66 my camera was not working. I do have better shots but would have to look for them.

          Enlarge Pictures please!!!!!

           .Look at the MS 66 and the building still standing today. They were experts in architecture for buildings to stand from centuries before. There almost identical. A. better picture and you would see how close they are!