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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: 909

WORCESTERSHIRE, Evesham, Thomas Thompson, Skidmore's Penny, 1796, by Jacobs, EVESHAM PENNY, view of Evesham church, rev. PAYABLE BY JUNE • 6 • 1796, TT cypher in wreath, I PROMISE TO PAY ON DEMAND THE BEARER ONE PENNY on edge, 12h, 24.53g (D&H 6), with a full glossy brilliance, speckled areas of mint red, good extremely fine

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

Thomas Thompson (1767-1818), member of parliament for Evesham, issued this private penny sized token. Sixty were struck in copper-bronzed and three in gold.

Upon his death Thompson was described by the Reverend Richard Warner as so; 'His father had given Mr Thompson an excellent education; his genius was sprightly; and his taste in the arts, refined: but he was to be classed rather among the belle-lettres, than the well-informed men; for though he knew a little of most things, he was profound in none. Plunged, unhappily, in early manhood, into the vortex of fashionable dissipation, the most precious period of his life had been wasted in worse than idleness: and he had to lament, and frequently did he lament, that the only 'wages' he had earned from a wild course of lavish expenditure, were an injured fortune, and a broken constitution. The munificence of his father to him, had been princely: but, it could not keep pace with his extravagance; for play was one among the many modes, by which he ruined his finances ... He had seen and deplored his error, ere I became acquainted with him: and, I believe, nothing would have tempted him, to have touched again a card or a die. From the period of this loss, he devoted himself, as far as his shattered health would allow, to some of the higher species of literature.'


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Sold for
£280

Starting price
£70