Merchants marks, some of which are curious and of considerable interest, were to some extent used. They were, indeed, of much the same use as the “Trade Marks” of our own day. Other devices are implements of one kind or other connected with the trade or calling of the issuer; articles of clothing made or sold by him; animals and heraldic figures usually derived from guild arms or from signs; articles of domestic use of endless variety; and ships, boats, coaches, carriages, pack-horses, and numerous other matters connected with the daily life of the people.
Rebusses and allusive designs—that is, devices containing a play upon the name of the issuer—are far from uncommon. Thus James Bolton, of Blackburn, adopted on each side his tokens the device of a bolt and tun; Thomas Towers, of March, a tower; Anthony Rachell, of Wisbech, a “rachalled” or cogged wheel; Walter Coates, of Stockport, a colt; Francis Woodward, of Crutched Friars, a wood-ward mounted and blowing his horn; William Archer, of Deptford, an archer with bow and arrow; Hannah Bell, of Tooley Street, a bell; Hugh Conny, of Potton, three conies; John Curtis, of Yarmouth, two men curtseying; Robert Hancock, of Whitefriars, a hand and a cock; Ralph Harbottle, of Great Torrington, a hare and a bottle; Robert Thornhill, who kept the “Bull” inn, a Bull standing under a Thorn tree on a mound or hill; and so on.
Very frequently, and sometimes on the obverse and at others on the reverse, are the initials of the issuer or, more frequently still, those of the issuer and his wife tied together with, or having between them, a “true lover’s knot,” with floral or tasselled terminations. The initials in the latter case are thus arranged
M
I·K, that of the family name (Malyn) at the top, and those of the Christian name, of the husband (John) and wife (Katherine), at the sides as here engraved from a Duffield token.
On some the issuer has, as will occasionally be met with by the collector, introduced some remarkably quaint inscriptions. Thus on a token of Richard Bakewell, of Derby, 1666, is the curious inscription, GOOD MORROW VALENTINE, the device being two doves billing. On another Derby token, that of William Newcome, we have on the obverse, TOVCH NOT MINE ANOINTED, and on the reverse DOE MY PROPHETS NOE HARME. On one of Samuel Hendon, of Macclesfield,
WELCOME YOU BE
TO TRADE WITH ME.
On one of Thomas Cotton, of Middlewich,