Who here does Conder Tokens?

[cosmicdebris]

My most recent acquisition:

 

Hertfordshire Stortford D&H 4 ( Ex-Boulton piece ) comes with letter of Provenance.

 

 

[the_Thing ®]

 

I know nothing about that piece.

[the_Thing ®]

CD, what is a Condor token?

[cosmicdebris]

Everthing you need to know about Conder Tokens:

 

Linky-Poo

[the_Thing ®]

Holy cow, that does tell everything and then some. Do you have any Wilkinson tokens? They sound interesting. Your token looks brass (and I can see some toning), but i'm assuming its copper. Was one certain metal used for most tokens?

[cosmicdebris]

Conder tokens were mainly copper. However, there were some struck in other metals and most of there are quite rare. You have Silver, white metal and some bronzed copper as well as gilt copper pieces.

 

To see some of my other tokens as well as some tokens of others: LINKY-POO

[the_Thing ®]

All these years of collecting, and this is the first I've heard of them. Looks like there is enough variety to keep a collector busy for quite some time. Do you slab any of yours?

[cosmicdebris]

There's got to be over 3,000 different designs. As for slabbing I have not bought any in slabs or had any slabbed yet.

 

But the piece at the top of this thread may get slabbed. It comes from Mathew Boulton's personal collection and it would be cool to get that pedigree on the holder.

[the_Thing ®]

What is the price range on Condor tokens?

[cosmicdebris]

Dpends on Grades and Rareity like everything else. Low grade common ones can sell for $10. High grade scarcer ones can be $300.00 and up.

[the_Thing ®]

Ok, last question. I'm just trying to get myself edjumakated on this. Is there any reference material devoted purely to Condor tokens?

[TomB]

That's a beautiful piece, CD, I like it very much!

 

Thing, if you would like an excellent reference for Conder tokens then you should look for a copy of The Provincial Token-Coinage Of The 18th Century by Dalton & Hamer. This is known in shorthand as D&H and most Conder pieces are refered to by their D&H number assigned in the original text. The original D&H book was published around WWI, was updated in 1990 and had introductory text added to it in 1996. In total, it is about 800 pages and would run you perhaps $90. This is the latest version of it. I have had my copy of it for several years and have used it extensively, the only thing I don't like about it is that the way the pages are adhered to the binding makes them prone to breaking out of the binding.

 

Conder tokens are wonderful pieces to have in a collection as there is a very wide array of designs and an enormous number of varieties, should one be interested in collecting them that way. They were issued within many well-known counties and cities, cover themes such as politics, animals or buildings and are very inexpensive. Some of the choice brown pieces that I have picked up were only about $150 and quite a few of the circulated pieces were $25. Here is a link to a Conder token thread that I started some time ago and here is the image of the Conder that I was writing about.

[cosmicdebris]

Yep the D&H is the bible of Conder Tokens. They reprinted it for 2004 and it comes with a little extra addendum. They are now selling for $150.00 to $180.00.

 

Nice one Tom What's the D&H on it?

[TomB]

Thanks, CD.

 

This is listed as a Gloucestershire-Newent D&H64 even though the token spells it differently. There is a rare variety of this design and a very rare variety, however, this is the common variety. The varieties differ by the edge motif.

[cosmicdebris]

A lot of the tokens have so many different varieties it is hard to keep up with them.

 

I started a Web Site for all my tokens.

[TomB]

I like your web page a lot. The dude on the Anglesey tokens always freaked me out, so I never bought one of those. It seems that you buy these in a little better condition than I typically buy them. The Lancashire piece is one that I gave my father-in-law a few years ago, I bought the piece at the ANA when it was in NYC. The Pidcock's series is my favorite, overall, of any of these tokens and I have several of them.

[cosmicdebris]

It seems that you buy these in a little better condition than I typically buy them.

 

I am trying to buy only UNC or borderline AU/UNC examples where a truely UNC example is really tough to come by. The prices on these make it very easy to do so.

[kryptonitecomics]

Never heard of them..............................

 

 

 

D & H 102

 

 

[cosmicdebris]

Cool die crack on that one.

[Yarm]

A previous post reminded me that I had a small box of condor tokens. Here's my "wild man" (Middlesex B & H 906)

[TomB]

That is so frickin' cool! Is the relief greater than typical for this series or is it simply the angle that you took the image at that makes it look like such high relief?

[Yarm]

The relief on the Middlesex 906 is high enough so that I doubt they would stack well (The plastic container I have it in does not close all the way.) As far as I know there is no series of these things but rather a wide array of one-off tokens produced by individual businesses. Check out cosmicdebris's site for shots of a lot of them.

[Yarm]

Today's Teletrade auction has a Yorkshire-York D&H 63 for sale in AU.

[Yarm]

Now that I'm bleary eyed from D & H's tome, I've begun to think (worry) about the storage of these tokens. Mine are still in the original paper envelopes with cotton inserts (inside a box with Metalsafe.) Is there a smarter way to maintain these things over time? Are people actually slabbing them? Thanks!

[TomB]

Please warn me to strap myself into my chair before looking at an image like that next time! Wow!

 

I typically keep mine in 2x2 cotton inserts inside of 2x2 Kraft-type envelopes. However, I only own a few glossy, MS pieces. I do own two slabbed pieces, one MS63RB and the other EF45, but I did not slab them.

[Yarm]

Thanks for the storage info.

 

I took that photo the day I got my new camera (Canon Power Shot 540A) and could not find a way to show all of the token's elaborate design without tilting it and making the surface "flash." I may go back and try a head on shot now that I've experimented some.