This Skidmore’s Register
Stove London (Middlesex) copper Conder halfpenny token,
dated 1795 (Dalton & Hamer Middlesex No. 480; Atkins 361; 29 mm.) has
superb eye appeal with superb color and surfaces. There is considerable original red luster on
both the obverse and reverse, and the usual die flaw on the reverse within the
word “CLERKENWELL” in the legend is minimal.
Obverse: Register stove within a circle, with legend on its four sides:
“No 123 | HIGH
| HOLBORN | LONDON” and legend
around: “PAYABLE AT SKIDMORES FURNISHING REPOSITORY *”. Reverse: Two men at a forge, with legend
below: “1795”, and legend around: “MANUFACTORY . &
. IRON-FOUNDRY . CLERKENWELL *”. Diagonally milled edge \\\\\\. John Skidmore (1748-1823),
with his sons Meremoth and Gamaliel, became very successful stove grate
manufacturers in London. They carried on
an iron-foundry and held the appointment of stove grate
maker to His Majesty's Board of Ordnance. Another son, Paul Skidmore (b. 1775), was a token maker in Holborn. Skidmore & Son,
circa 1795 or 1796, produced numerous tokens, ultimately responsible for more
than a quarter of all the token varieties produced in the late 18th century,
including those issued by Matthew Denton, Thomas Prattent, and Thomas Spence.