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17th-Century Farthing Trade Tokens
Berkshire

In the present List of Berkshire Seventeenth Century Tokens, 189 Tokens have been described, as against 137 in the former edition of Boyne. Three then included in the Berkshire List ascribed to Steventon are now omitted, it having been clearly proved that these were issued from Steventon, Bedfordshire.--[Vide note under STEVENTON.]

Of the fifty-five Tokens now added, eighteen have been previously described in the work entitled "The Seventeenth Century Tokens in the British Museum not described in Boyne," by Messrs. C. F. Keary, M.A., and Warwick Wroth, published by Rollin and Feuardent, London, in 1885.

The remaining thirty-seven Tokens now introduced have not, as far as I am aware, been before described.

Corrections or additions in the descriptions of twenty of the Tokens given in the last edition of Boyne have been made.

Tokens which were not included in the former edition of Boyne have * prefixed to the description; those with the description amended have t prefixed; and those which were previously noted in the above-mentioned work by Messrs. C. F. Keary and Warwick Wroth are marked M. [This has not been adobted in the following list.]

In addition to the three Steventon tokens which have been omitted, there are two which appear also not to belong to Berkshire, viz., the farthing of Thomas Smith of Abington, and the farthing of Thomas Yovnge of Newbvrye. These are, however, for the present left in their places, with notes respecting them.

The earliest date on any Berkshire Token appears to be 1652, and the latest date 1670.

The only townpiece is the farthing of Newbury, of which there were five varieties issued in the same year.--[Vide notes under Newbury Tokens.]

There are no pence.

There are thirty-one halfpennies. Of these two are heart-shaped, viz., that of Richard Fowler of Faringdon, and that of Hvgh Champion, of Reading. One halfpenny, viz., that of John Gosse, of Windsor, is octagonal. All besides these are circular.

There are 158 farthings. All of these are of the usual shape, except that issued by Thomas Cowslade of Newbury, which is convex on the obverse, and concave on the reverse.

Tokens appear to have been sparingly issued in Berkshire, and none appear to be now commonly met with, except, perhaps, the Newbury Town tokens, the token of Edmund Stone, of Maidenhead, and that of William Masmore, of Wantage.

The numbers of tokens, or varieties of tokens, issued from Berkshire towns and villages are:

Reading63
Wantage19
Wallingford15
Wokingham14
Newbury13
Windsor12
Abingdon11
Faringdon11
Hungerford5
Maidenhead5
Blewbury4
Lambourn4
Hagbourn3
Sonning2
Bucklebury1
Cookham1
Coxwell1
Harwell1
Ilsley1
Longcott1
Longworth1
Winkfield1

Of the above-named places the following are now for the first time noted as having tokens issued from them: Bucklebury, Cookham, Little Coxwell, Sonning, and Wingfield.

B. Lowsley,
Major, Royal Engineers
Hampstead Norreys, Berks.

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