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Auction: 24123 - British and World Coins and Medals featuring the Pritchard Collection of 18th Century Provincial Tokens and Commemorative Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 862

MIDDLESEX, London, Pidcock's Birds and Beast, Halfpenny, undated, lion seated, holding shield inscribed EXETER CHANGE LONDON, rev. eagle, plain edge, 5h, 8.23g (D&H 414), small stain to reverse, yet pleasingly struck up design, extremely fine; another, as before, plain edge, 7h, 7.86g (D&H 414), lustrous, pleasingly struck up design, good extremely fine (2)

The Pritchard Collection of 18th Century Provincial Tokens and Commemorative Medals


Gilbert Pidcock was the owner of the famous 'Pidcock's Menagerie', located at Exeter Exchange on the Stand in London. The show was celebrated for its vast array of exotic animals from as far as Australia and South-East Asia, many of which Londoners had bever seen before, such as kangaroos, elephants, rhinoceros and cockatoos.

Pidcock had worked in travelling shows from a young age, and in 1795 took sole ownership of the London menagerie. As well as exotic animals, the exhibit was also notorious for its unusual specimens, famously a two-headed heifer. The London Chronicle wrote, 'This very remarkable creature has two Heads, Four Horns, Four Ears, Four Nostrils, through each of which it breathes, &c. This truly wonderful Curiosity is the only one of the kind in Europe'.


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Sold for
£160

Starting price
£60