Irish trade tokens
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Glasgow Museums has a collection of approximately 650 trade tokens of which 50 are Irish representing its overall numismatic and Scottish history and banking collections. A trade token was usually made of cheap metals or other materials. It was used instead of legal tender representing small value coins and issued to workers. They were commonly used to barter in stores where the employer or issuer already owned or had a trade deal in place. Trade tokens can bear the names of the employers or issuers as well as images of their factories and industries. They can also represent countries through historic figures and mottos, cities through public buildings and in the United Kingdom’s case empire was promoted through images and mottos supporting the monarchy, government and promotion of commerce, trade, and naval power as well as through circulation in countries where trade tokens were used then considered dominions and colonies. The date range for the collection runs from the late 1700s to mid-1800s. Most of the Irish trade tokens represent businesses based in Dublin although one comes from Belfast and two from Newtownards. There is a collection of 12 tokens which representing the Irish coal mining industry through the Irish Mine Company, Irish Miners Arms, Hibernian Mining Company and the Cronebane colliery. The Dublin tokens bear common trade token mottos such as Pro Public Bono (for public good representing work for no pay) as well as the city’s factories and businesses including street names and the business owners for manufacturing and selling buttons, drapery, brewing, engineering and tea and coffee. Some tokens show typical British trade token images such as monarchs or military leaders, but other tokens carry specific Irish imagery and information: shamrocks (Cannock and White), harps (Camac Ryan), or the buildings where businesses where once based (Mo. Swiney & Delaney and Co, Dublin) together with the streets where they were too. As with other British trade tokens some Irish trade tokens also let their owners know that the tokens can be used in other specified cities in Ireland and England. One token carries the motto ‘Am I not a man and a brother’ which was payable in London and Dublin and indicate Irish support for the abolition of slavery in the 1790s.
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