PREVIEW: COINS & HISTORICAL MEDALS: 10 DECEMBER

Hop tokens provide a lasting record of a social and economic system that finally disappeared soon after the Second World War. Often issued by individual farmers and landowners, they were as local a token system as ever existed, and so provide a unique historical record.

The cultivation of hops being almost entirely confined to Kent and East Sussex, associated tokens were largely limited to the farms and villages of that region and date from around 1770 onwards.

 

Hop pickers would come down from the East End of London to supplement the local workforce at harvest time. For the Londoners, it was as close to a holiday break from their day-to-day life as they could afford, and the system of tally sticks and tokens took into account that the fact that many of those employed to pick hops were illiterate.

Tokens were traditionally used as an alternative to tally sticks to keep a record of an individual's work, and then to use as currency in local shops and inns or to cash in with the farmers on a weekly basis. As an alternative to hard currency, they allowed landowners to control rates of reward per bushel as conditions changed, reflecting variations in the quality and quantity of hops, and retain the loyalty of their workforce, at least until they converted their tokens into hard cash.

The vast range and individual nature of tokens make them attractive to collectors as well as historians. Initially lead was used, with local blacksmiths among those who would strike or cast tokens. Other materials, such as bronze, brass, copper, bone, cardboard and even paper also came into use.

The issuer's name or initials would appear as standard – it was essential for those local tradesmen who accepted them as payment to know which landowners would redeem them for cash.

As farms developed new systems for monitoring work output and the populace became more literate, allowing for documented accounting via pickers' books, the need for tokens declined and they fell out of use. Mechanised picking gradually put an end to a way of life that had thrived for centuries.

This sale has a fine group of around 200 hop tokens from Kent and Sussex villages, including Ashburnham, Battle, Beckley, Bexhill, Brede, Burwash, Ewhurst, Fairlight, Hawkhurst, Hurst Green, Icklesham, Ninfield, Northiam, Peasmarsh, Robertsbridge, Rotherfield, Rye, Sedlescombe, Udimore, West Chiltington, Westfield and more. Presented in a varied state, they come identified in packets and are sold with a descriptive list. The estimate is £300-500.