British Co-op tokens denominated in other goods than bread or milk

[malj1]

Dumbarton Equitable Co-operative Society Pastry tokens.

Intriguing but Pastry is Scottish speak for something.

The darker blue is 24.7mm while the paler blue is 25.3mm due to the ridge running round the edge.

[Figleaf]

Fun. The word pastry can be used for unbaked or pre-baked bread dough. That would be handy on board of a fisherman, where bread turns stale and eventually mouldy, but pastry can be turned into fresh bread as long as it can be chilled. Larger fishermen would have cooling installations on board to preserve the fish. Dumbarton is close enough to the sea. My doubt is whether the crew was supposed to bring its own bread.

Peter

[redwine]

Apparently there's a dark green version of the same.  Rains lists a pale turquoise token but no blue one?

[malj1]

The top one is turquoise if you hold your mouth right for a moment! but I can't get dark green out of either. 

[redwine]

The top one is turquoise if you hold your mouth right for a moment! but I can't get dark green out of either. 

I've been holding my mouth and got nowhere 

[malj1]

The catalogue I have by Steve Cribb also only mentions the turquoise one.

[constanius]

Pastries & pastry is also used for small tarts & cakes. 

[New to tokens]

Hello World of coins members, I was digging in my garden and found a cooperative token that says 'limited to ten stones' on one side, please can anyone tell me what this token was for? Thanks.

[Figleaf]

Can you post a picture? UK co-op tokens are usually denominated in units of money, bread or milk. A weight of over 60 kg seems too high for retail trade.

Peter

[FosseWay]

A weight of over 60 kg seems too high for retail trade.

Except for coal, where it is a perfectly reasonable quantity for domestic retail.

But I can find no evidence that coal was sold by the stone in the 20th century in the UK. When I was a kid it came in hundredweight bags (112 lb or 8 stone), which in the 1980s was metricated as 50 kg bags. To the extent that a smaller unit than that was needed, I suspect it was either the quarter (2 stone) or simply the pound (as used in the US - there is no commonly used unit between the pound and the ton there AFAIK).

There are two other issues with it being for coal or a similar bulky retail commodity sold by the Co-op. Firstly, 10 stone is a strange amount. As said, the standard unit for coal was 8 stone, or one-twentieth of a ton. 10 stone is not a useful fraction or multiple of anything. I suspect too that sacks of coal weighed around 50 kg in most places because that was the rough upper limit to what a fit labourer could heft around all day long. 10 stone would be pushing it, I'd have thought.

Secondly, a linguistic issue: IME the plural of "stone" when used as a quantity rather than the unit by itself is "stone". You say "I weigh 12 stone", not "I weigh 12 stones". On the other hand when talking about the unit, you do use the standard plural: "Please fill in your weight in stones and pounds". The same usage is often seen, though not grammatically required, in phrases like "That costs two pound fifty" or "I am six foot, two inches tall".

[New to tokens]

Hi this is a picture of the front of the token, Altofts Cooperative society, limited to ten stones. I did some initial research but could only find Coop tokens for monetary values or for items like milk and bread.  I did also think maybe coal as it was found near to what would have been the coal store and could not think of anything else that would have been sold at that weight. I am intrigued and hence asking the question to people who know more about coop tokens. Thanks for your responses so far!

[FosseWay]

That solves one mystery - the Limited is part of the name - Altofts Cooperative Society Limited.

That still leaves "10 stones" as the apparent denomination, which still seems odd for the reasons outlined above.

This token is listed in Douglas Rains' book Co-operative checks and tokens, but he doesn't offer any explanation for the value. Another odd denomination issued by Altofts is "Pint Vinegar".

[New to tokens]

Thank you for the info Fosseway.

[malj1]

10 stones is certainly a mysterious denomination, I asked google without result other than finding a better example of the token.

I did find this Historyof coal in the West Riding of Yorkshire; Altofts which mentions ....After the first world war, Allen William Ratcliffe founded with other English residents in Calais, a wholesale cooperative society using the expertise of the Altofts and Normanton Co-operative Society, Ltd, the co-op or CWS of Altofts, and I suppose with the help of its managers and of Pope and Pearsons....