Sheffield Tokens

[Ponytail]

Introducing Sheffield Tokens. 

By Vivien Lloyd. 

[Heartshome]

Interesting!! I never realised we had these here. I knew the navvy's were given them by the companies to spend in their

shops and pubs, when they were building Canals, Reservoirs and Railways. Nice one!

[Edmund]

The Sheffield Constitutional Society, formed in 1792 to bring about Parliamentary reform, issued penny and half-penny tokens bearing the words "Unite and be free", "To persevere is to conquer", and "Revolution Penny".  On the edge was "I promise to pay, on demand, the bearer, one penny".  These Constitutional tokens were probably not so much for currency as to show the feelings of the 600 members of the society.

When Thomas Hardy and other members of the London Corresponding Society were tried for high treason in 1794, Sheffield sent as witnesses William Broomhead of Watson's Walk (cutler and scissor finisher), William Camage of Fargate, (ink bottle maker), Richard Davidson (printer), Henry Hill of Fargate (cutler), Robert Moody of Cheney Square (Carpenter and joiner) and George Widdison of Fargate (hairdresser).

The trial commenced on 24th October 1794.  The Sheffield society produced a letter in April of that year, stating that the lower classes needed to prepare to defend themselves and advertised tempered and polished steel pikes, which could be fixed onto any wooden shafts, but recommended fir ones. The pikes were one shilling each and money orders were to be sent to the secretary of the Sheffield Constitutional Society.  The London conspirators were acquitted and the Sheffield meetings continued to be held in a room at the house of William Broomhead in Watson's Walk. The Friends of Reform held a dinner there on Boxing Day 1794, to celebrate the acquittal of five members of the Sheffield Constitutional Society (though Henry Yorke was fined £200 and sentenced to two years imprisonment).

from a paper on "The Token Coinage of Sheffield" read by Mr.Hamer to the members of the Yorkshire Numismatic Fellowship in October 1911 at Weston Park Museum.