The Preston-Morley Buckinghamshire Collection: Tokens

17th Century, Chesham, John Grover, Halfpenny, 1671, mm. pierced sexfoil both sides, iohn·grover·in, figure standing left, holding tobacco pipe to mouth, rev. chesham·1671·, i g g, 1/2 below, surrounded by four pierced mullets, other pierced mullets as stops in legends, 1.60g/12h (Berry & Morley –; BW. 47A, this piece). Obverse fine, reverse good fine, patinated, of the highest rarity, the only known specimen (£500-700)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Preston-Morley Buckinghamshire Collection: Tokens.

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Provenance:
D G Vorley Collection [private sale];
bt N Clark December 1990.

Because of the obverse device, which suggests the trade of tobacconist, the issuer is not thought to be the same person as the previous John Grover: the name Grover is common in the Chesham parish registers of the time. This is the only entirely new Buckinghamshire token type to have been discovered since Berry and Morley published in 1973. It was first recorded by Dickinson (1986, p.29) on the advice of the late Denis Vorley (1915-1996); regrettably, Vorley kept no provenances, so its previous history is not known