Condor

[Prosit]

This is a condor token right? the one they call the druid?  Looks like they were used for money.  Thanks AG!  This is the second condor I have owned but the other was so long ago that I forget which one I had.  It is long gone so this is my only piece from that area.

Dale

[andyg]

This token was issued by the Parys mine company in North Wales, struck in Soho by Boulton.

More info on the mountain here
and the tokens can be found here

[Figleaf]

[rant] I think the US name Conder token is highly misleading. The Conder book is not only no longer widely available or widely used, there are also much better books on the subject. My favorite is currently Dalton and Hamer's The provincial Token-Coinage of the 18th Century ISBN 0-88000-107-0 (second reprint)[/rant]

This is DH Wales 277bis (RRR, according to DH), a halfpenny 1788 issued for the Parys mine company (the cypher PMCo on the reverse refers to this company). It was designed by Westwood and struck in the Parys company's own mint in Birmingham. They are known with dates 1787-1793, making them the earliest of the 18th century tokens. Parys issued at least 250 tons of pennies and about 50 tons of halfpence with many different die variations. In 1788 alone, DH lists 87 halfpenny varieties.

This is a genuine trade token: it was issued because official issues were lacking and it is of reasonable weight. It may be described as:

obv: Druid's head within a wreath of oak facing left, 2 single acorns on each side of the tie
rev: ornamented PMCo cypher, THE ANGLESEY MINERS HALFPENNY, 1 in date to the left of the the second N
edge: PAYABLE IN ANGLESEY LONDON OR LIVERPOOL.

The contribution of Wales to the industrial revolution is often forgotten. Wales boasted rich copper and tin mines, but it had problems mining the metals as the mine shaft tended to flood with ground water. Around 1700, Welsh engineers started constructing pumps driven by steam to drain the mines. This was the origin of the idea of the steam engine. The pumps steadily got better, giving a very serious boost to production, so Parys was sitting on large copper supplies it cleverly sold as tokens.

Peter

[Numii_Anglii]

Druid's Head Halfpenny of the Anglesey (Island) Mining Company which had lots of Copper reserves, unlike the British Government at the time. Druid's are a Welsh thing - Anglesey is an Island almost attached to North Wales. Pretty dinged up, I'd say. there are lots of varieties of these, here is a really nice one.
http://www.abccoinsandtokens.com/DH.N.Wales.002b.002.html

[Afrasi]

There exist no CONDOR tokens. CONDER tokens are named after James Conder, a trader at Ipswich, issuer and collector of tokens, who published 1798 one of the first catalogues of tokens.

[Prosit]

Actually I did know that.

So what is a convenient but accurate name to call them as a group?
Dale

There exist no CONDOR tokens. CONDER tokens are named after James Conder, a trader at Ipswich, issuer and collector of tokens, who published 1798 one of the first catalogues of tokens.

[Afrasi]

Just because you did write them wrong in your headline ... Sorry for being so nitpicking!     

[Prosit]

That is because I don't know what else to call them as a group.  Maybe I should have titled it after the token instead of the group.

Dale

Just because you did write them wrong in your headline ... Sorry for being so nitpicking!     

[Figleaf]

Personally, I use "18th century trade tokens" for that particular group of tokens. That's a bit long, but it allows for 17th century trade tokens and 19th century trade tokens. Both groups exist and they are both very different in style, execution and weight from the 17th century tokens. DH calls them "provincial token-coinage", which I don't like, because there are no provinces in the UK. Whitting, another author, calls them "trade tokens", neatly excluding other tokens. Paul Withers, a dealer-author says "copper tokens", which excludes the silver ones, of course. Davis, yet another author, just says "token coinage."

I guess there's just no need to single out this particular token group. Similar groups exist in many other countries, ranging from Canada to Ceylon.

Peter

[Prosit]

I haven't collected tokens like these in the past to amount to anything.  Consequently I have very slight knowledge of only three groups.
USA, Canada, and these.  So that is why I tend to view them as a stand alone group  .

Looks like I need to change my thinking a little.

Dale

I guess there's just no need to single out this particular token group. Similar groups exist in many other countries, ranging from Canada to Ceylon.
Peter

[Figleaf]

Trade tokens (used as a replacement for official coins because of scarcity) are known from the UK and Ireland (17th century, during the silver hunger, 18th century during the Napoleonic wars, 19th century - including many silver tokens- industrial revolution), Denmark (1 øre, second world war), Sweden (copper daler tokens), Germany, Belgium, France, French colonies and Monaco (all around end of first world war), Italy (50, 100 and 200 lire pieces), Egypt (Suez canal construction), South Africa (outposts), Ceylon (plantation tokens), Singapore and Sarawak (trade with inlanders on surrounding islands), Australia and New Zealand (lack of UK coins), Canada (lack of UK coins), US (lack of UK coins, US civil war, tax tokens), several Latin American countries (hacienda tokens)

Several more countries saw circulation of isolated tokens, rather than token waves in times of shortages or chaos and confusion. There are also tokens issued for an isolated group, such as leprosy colonies, tuberculosis colonies, madhouses, prisons, the military, prisoner of war camps, beer tokens, waiter tokens. You could also put plantation and hacienda tokens in this group. They served as money, but were not issued because of scarcity of official coins, but to keep official coins out of the hands of the target group, so I wouldn't call them trade tokens, but that's a personal choice.

Peter

[andyg]

Trade tokens (used as a replacement for official coins because of scarcity) are known from the UK and Ireland (17th century, during the silver hunger,

Just a thought, but prior to 1693 any ore mined in the UK was the property of the crown - therefore there was no incentive to mine ore locally which would have increased the cost of the metal in which to make your tokens.  This might go some way to explaining the proliferation of token issuance towards the latter years of the 17th century.

[Numii_Anglii]

There exist no CONDOR tokens. CONDER tokens are named after James Conder, a trader at Ipswich, issuer and collector of tokens, who published 1798 one of the first catalogues of tokens.

haha...good luck in correcting an Americanism