co·op·er·a·tive

/kōˈäp(ə)rədiv,kōˈäpəˌrādiv/

 noun: co-operative

1.      a farm, business, or other organization which is owned and run jointly by its members, who share the profits or benefits.

By the year 1870 the cooperative movement was in full swing, having taken root in Britain and from there branching out to Scotland, Ireland and the rest of the U.K., with nearly every city and town having a local Co-Operative and shop. On the Isle of Man a meeting was convened in St James Hall on Monday evening, January the 10^th, 1870, of persons interested in the formation of a society, a Co-Operative, similar to those having been established elsewhere. According to accounts, about two hundred individuals were present, the majority of whom belonged to the working classes, and by the end of the meeting it was agreed that arrangements be made to establish the first, or one of the first, such societies on the island.

In the initial meetings prior to startup it was determined that shares were to be sold for £1 and those individuals who could not advance the entire balance were allowed to pay at the rate of 1s per week. Additionally, shares would collect interest at the rate of 5% and dividends paid quarterly after the shareholders meeting, assuming that profits for the quarter would allow for payouts. It was also hoped that 500 shares would be sold so as to ensure the Co-operative be launched under “perfectly favourable circumstances”. The five-hundred shares would provide enough capital to open a shop and stock its shelves with food and provisions available at that time. In the meetings it was also discussed on how transactions at the shop should progress, “Every shareholder or his representative on purchasing goods at the store would have given to him or her a tin tally or tallies stamped, to the amount of his purchase, and when these tin tallies reached the sum of £1 (representative money), he could begin or send them to the store, and they would be entered to his credit in the store ledger and also in his own private account book.”. This method of accounting does not seem to have ever been implemented as no tin tallies with stamped denominations from this organization have ever been recorded, and it is most likely that for the first several months of operation purchases were only kept track of in private logbooks and in the store's ledger kept by the shopman. 

Excerpt from the Manx Sun, Saturday, January 15^th, 1870

According to public records the Douglas Co-Operative Society was registered with the government on March 1^st, 1870, and a shop opened at 44, Strand Street, in Douglas, sometime between then and June 1^st. Presumably the shop was opened in April or May of that year as the first dividends were paid out on July 11^th, 1870, at the rate of 1s 1d to the pound spent at the store. In seven months time it was managed to organize a Co-operative, sell commitments on 500 shares, register the business, acquire goods to sell, open a store in which to conduct business, and pay out the first dividends. A somewhat miraculous feat considering the majority of the shares were only paid for in part or not at all.

Isle of Man Times, Saturday, July 9^th, 1870

As the first year rolled on it was decided to allow non-shareholders to collect a proportionate dividend, approximately one-fourth of what shareholders received, to add a bakery from which could be sold bread and that a horse and cart be purchased to deliver it.  The individuals employed at the shop now consisted of a Baker, a delivery boy, and a shopman who was responsible for the day-to-day transactions and accounting. At the October quarterly meeting the issuance of some type of tally or check was again discussed as some members were insistent on there being a better system of checks and balances. Mr. Mollard, the former secretary of the society, suggested that “checks should be given to all purchasers. This system would act in this way: A number of checks would be given out to the shopman after the money had been counted from the till, and the next night, by reckoning the amount of checks given out and subtracting the amount remaining, you would have the amount of cash that ought to have been taken. Without some such system as this, there would be no check on the takings,”. Eventually, after some discussion, the handing out of checks was voted on and adopted during the quarterly meeting held on October 10th, 1870. 

Mona’s Herald, Wednesday, October 12^th, 1870

It is safe to say that the issuance of checks came soon after their approval, perhaps at the start of the first quarter of 1871 or possibly sooner. The Co-Operative would issue checks in the amounts of £1, 1s, and 1d, with the total amount produced unknown. Per available resources the £1 checks were copper, the 1s checks tin, and the 1d checks iron, although I’ve never viewed, nor could I find examples of the 1s and 1d pieces. The issuance of checks was a common system used at the time, unfortunately it was fraught with opportunities for manipulation. The system worked similarly to what was described by Mr. Mollard, checks were given out in equal to the sum spent at the store and were retained by the individual until the quarterly dividend was declared. The checks were then taken to the Co-operative office or shop to be redeemed for cash, spent, or credited to an account. If dealt with honestly the issuance of checks gave an accurate reading on the day-to-day takings, the amount of checks issued being the same as the cash received on purchases. However, the system of checks was easily taken advantage of by dishonest shopmen, and advantageous individuals with means. A popular scheme was to hold back checks until the next quarter when, hopefully, a better dividend would be paid. Also, similar to the holding of checks, affluent individuals would purchase checks from poor or down on their luck members, frequently at a discount, and hold them until an acceptable dividend was announced. These practices would upset the balance sheets and, in many instances, cause serious financial problems for smaller Co-Operatives, in several instances causing them to close their doors. Another popular practice was the forging of high value checks, such as £1 & £5, possibly why the use of hand-stamped tallies was passed over in the first society meeting.

Diameter, approx. 23mm (Actual, 22.91 (.902")), Thickness, approx. 1.2mm (Actual, 1.22 (.048")), Weight 3.6g, Reeded/Milled Edge

Needless to say, the checks were soon abandoned and at the quarterly meeting held on Monday, January 26^th, 1874, it was stated that “the new arrangement (the calling in of all the checks and the substitution therefor of books this quarter) allowed of a larger dividend being paid.”. So, it seems there was significant enough manipulation of the checks system that they were recalled prior to or within the fourth quarter of 1873, meaning that metal checks were in use for less than three years. Possibly one reason for their seeming scarcity today as these metal checks are rarely seen in any denomination. Based on the available quarterly reports for the Co-Operative, over those three or so years, the shop averaged roughly £1,152 in sales per quarter, meaning they would most likely have only needed around 1,500 one pound checks, possibly less, and I suspect that the mintage would have been right around that number. Also, according to meeting reports of the time, dividends paid per £1 spent at the Co-Operative shop while the metal checks were in use averaged 1s 7d for shareholders and 8d for non-shareholders, while in the first year after the checks were recalled dividends increased to an average of 2s 3p for shareholders and 1s for non-shareholders. 

Manx Sun, Saturday, January 31^st, 1874

Business remained steady in the years following the recall of the metal checks and the Douglas Co-Operative Society continued operations for another decade which included the opening a second shop, also in Douglas. Unfortunately, around 1880, the Co-Operative began to steadily decline seeing increased competition from other Co-Ops, slumping sales, the hiring and firing of several lay-about and crooked shopmen (one of whom they took to court), being fined for an out of balance scale, and a crash involving their horse, bread cart, and one of the delivery boys. By 1884 the writing was on the wall, with no dividends having been paid in multiple quarters, and their debts rising, the Douglas Co-Operative was forced to "wind up" on October 13^th, 1884, after which all assets would be liquidated at auction with proceeds going towards their debts.