Scottish Trade Tokens
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Glasgow Museums has a collection of approximately 650 trade tokens of which 140 are Scottish in 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 relevant industries and public buildings. For example, a trade token from Dundee highlights the drapery business Thomas Webster ran in a warehouse on the quay and Dundee Town House where the Town Council once sat. Other examples from elsewhere are similar with Dundee’s Infirmary hospital, glassworks, St Andrews Church (for the trades) and Dudhope Castle all being celebrated. Trade tokens issued in other Scottish cities and towns follow this pattern. In the Scottish trade token collection celebrates businesspeople in major cities throughout the country such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness as well as towns including Ayr, Brechin, Dingwall, Montrose, Forfar, Kirkcudbright, Georgetown, Paisley and Rutherglen and counties Perthshire and Clackmannanshire. There are examples of tokens which are generically patriotic such as Edinburgh’s tokens bearing the motto ‘Britiannia rules the waves’ or two showing St Andrew with his cross with the heraldic legend ‘NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSET (no one touches me with impunity) which was payable in London, Bristol and Lancaster. In Glasgow, a commonly issued token was given by the city’s retailers association bearing the motto ‘Let Glasgow Flourish’. Individual businesses, such as Gilbert Shearer’s drapery one, then issued their own tokens using this motto but also giving his own name and a depiction of a river god to represent the river Clyde. Other commonly celebrated industries represented in the collection include tea and spirits, textiles, glass making, warehousing, vitriol, coal, gardening, snuff, ironworks, The collection corresponds with the wider trade token collection representing other countries in the United Kingdom and countries elsewhere in the world. The date range for the collection runs from the late 1700s to mid-1800s.
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