★ '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 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. (clockwise ray border). 0.69gr, 12mm. Good 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.