★ 'Cross and Pellets' Token ★

England. 'Cross and Pellets' Pb Token. 1425-1490. London or Paris mint. Mitchiner Type Mb. 'Cross and Pellets' Token

England. 'Cross and Pellets' Pb Token. 1425-1490. London or Paris mint. Mitchiner Type Mb. IHC (retrograde) in Gothic within anti-clockwise ray border / Cross with dot in each angle; al within anti-clockwise ray border. Mitchiner & Skinner type M, 50 var. (IHC not retrograde; clockwise ray border). 0.69gr, 12mm. Very Fine.

Found from Billingsgate spoil from the Thames foreshore, London, UK, in the 1980s.Property of an Essex collector.

The 'cross and pellets' tokens differ from the other series of fifteenth-century tokens found in London by virtue of their close links with a series of French tokens. They have been found with not quite equal frequency in London and in Paris. The uniformity of design suggests centralised production control (such as by a guild) but the range of symbols - religious, merchant, brothels - suggests a wide range of users.