that the hawker,
arrested here Oct. 31, 1733, offered to take in payment for his goods.
He was released on consenting to the L7 worth he had received being cut
by a brazier and sold as metal, and his advertisements (hand bills)
burnt. These bad half pence weighed about 60 to the lb., 2s. 6d. worth
(nominal) being somewhat less than 10d. in value. In the ten years prior
to 1797 it has been estimated that 700 tons of copper were manufactured
here into tokens, and the issue of the celebrated Soho pence, providing
the nation with a sufficiency of legitimate copper coin, did not stay
the work, the number of tokens in circulation in the early part of the
present century being something wonderful, as many as 4,000 different
varieties having been described by collectors, including all
denominations, from the Bank of England's silver dollar to a country
huckster's brass farthing. More than nine-tenths of these were made in
Birmingham, and, of course, our tradesmen were not backward with their
own specimens. The Overseers issued the well-known "Workhouse Penny," a
copper threepenny piece, silver shillings and sixpences, paper notes for
2s. 6d., and leather bonds for 5s. With the exception of the penny these
are all scarce now, particularly the 5s., 2s. 6d., and 6d., a specimen
of the latter lately being sold at auction for 47s. In 1812 Sir Edward
Thomason struck, for a Reading banker (Mr. J.B. Monk), 800 gold tokens
of the nominal value of 40s. each; but this was just a step too far, and
the Government forbade their use. In the same year he also manufactured
two million penny tokens for our soldiers in Spain, which were _not_
forbidden. The permitted manufacture of token money came to an end with
the year 1817, an Act coming into force Jan. 1, 1818, forbidding further
issue from that date, or the circulation of them after the end of the
year, except in the case of the Overseers of Birmingham, who were
granted grace till Lady-day, 1820, to call in what they had issued. In
1786 Boulton struck over 100 tons of copper for the East India Co., and,
adding to his presses yearly, soon had plenty of orders, including
copper for the American Colonies, silver for Sierra Leone, and a
beautiful set for the French Republic. To enumerate all the various
coins, medals, and tokens issued from Soho would take too much space,
but we may say that he brought the art of coining to a perfection very
little surpassed even in the present day. In 1789 he ma