British Co-op tokens denominated in money

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For other tokens of the Ynysybwl co-op, see here and there

Test bores started in the early 1880s at Graigddu ("Black Rock"). As a result, the Ocean Coal Company sunk the Lady Windsor Colliery in 1884 and Ynysybwl became a coal town. The mine opened in 1886 with 300 miners' houses built on the opposite side of the valley. At its peak, the colliery employed around 1,500 people directly, although most of the 6,000-7,000 village community relied upon the pit in one way or another. The pit thrived throughout the first half of the 20th century. The Lady Windsor Colliery did not escape the troubles that plagued the industry during the miners' strikes of the early 1980s. The pit was finally closed in 1988.

The Ynysybwl co-op, dating from 1890, was originally named Ynysybwl industrial, later simply Ynysybwl. It joined Cooperative Retail Services in 1981.

Peter



   

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Since 1868, Kirriemuir's signature industry was jute, in the shape of Gairie works, also known as the J & D Wilkie factory. The plant was largely closed from 1973 and it is currently completely vacant. The company changed to polypropylene in 2005 and opened a production site in China.

Kirriemuir equitable dates from 1861. It joined the South Angus co-op in 1969, but there is still a co-op shop in Kirriemuir.

Peter


 

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In 1861, John Castle, silk weaver and a Mr. Dand established the Colchester and East Essex Co-operative and Industrial Society in order to provide cheap foodstuff to its members. In 1903/1904, the re-branded Colchester and East Essex Co-operative Society had 3,600 members and it had branched out to social groups, sports activities and entertainment events. In 1932, the co-op opened a funeral branch, an opticien and in 1935, it started a pharmacy on Long Wyre Street.

In 1940, the Ministry of Food introduced rationing of food and other goods. Every household had to register with a local store and take their ration book each week to collect basic supplies of butter, bacon, ham and sugar. 131,140 people registered with the Colchester and East Essex Co-operative Society, almost half of the population of the town at the time.

Having changed its name to Colchester co-operative society ltd., the society established its fleet of mobile shops in 1954 (photo).

A new supermarket opened in Stanway in 1971. Located where five roads met, the store was named 'Fiveways', a brand name that would also be given to other new supermarkets.

On 31 October 2005, the Ipswich and Norwich Co-operative and the Colchester Co-operative societies merged, and the East of England Co-op was born. The co-op now has 260 000 members and it runs over 120 stores and supermarkets.



Rains Colchester 26, aluminium, 26 mm

Peter

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See replies #112 and 119 above. This is Rains 18.



Portsmouth & Gosport co-operative company was a short-lived entity, operating around 1850.

Portsea Island Mutual Co-operative Society Ltd. (PIMCO) was formed in 1873 by dockyard workers who had transferred from Woolwich docks in east London to the Portsmouth dockyard. The workers had previously set up a successful Co-operative Society in Woolwich. When they arrived in Portsmouth they decided to replicate a similar set-up there. The Portsea Island Mutual Co-operative Society's first shop opened in Charles Street on 9 May 1873.

There were a few name changes, but they did not concern tokens denominated in money. Photo: milk cargo bicycles of the Portsea island mutual co-operative society ltd.


The society was renamed The Southern Co-operative Ltd. in 1998. Its head office was located at Fareham in Hampshire until, July 2011, when it moved to 1000 Lakeside, a business park in North Harbour, Portsmouth. The principal activities of the Society are food retailing, funerals and cafés. It operates over 300 stores and funeral homes and has over 150 000 members.

Peter

[bhx7]

Here is my set of Guide Post co-op tokens:

    penny 21.9mm
    threepence, 21.9mm.
    sixpence, 21.9mm.
    shilling, 25.4mm.
    two shillings 26.5mm
    five shillings, 28.8mm.
    half sovereign, brass 19.3mm
    one pound, bronze 22.3mm

The five shillings can be seen clearly as tinned iron while the others are the same with a thin coating of rust.

The two high values are marked Ardill Leeds.

So the Guide Post Village Co-Op had two types of the £1 token. Both are copper, the first - Dia: 22.4mm Wt: 4.2g Thk: 1.3mm and the second (small £1) - Dia: 22.8mm Wt: 3-3g Thk: 1mm

See Below
Brian

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Yes, clearly different on both sides. Likely post the 1879 series, but well before the 1961 token. My guess would be 1920s.

We are close to having 10 pages of pictures now. Wouldn't it be great if someone decided to start up a section in WoT? No need to cover the whole country. Just start up with e.g. one county and hope you can draw in others (BTW, that's what happened with the telephone token section). I'll throw in a free course on contributing to WoT.

Peter