The Grocers' Arms

John Howes issued this trade token, worth a farthing, for his business in Charter House Lane (now part of Charterhouse Street).

Boyne & Williamson (1889) reference London number 565; Obv inscription: IOHN.HOWES.AT.CHARTR (around field, in Roman capitals) Device = The Grocers' arms (in field); Rev inscription: HOVSE.LANE.END (around field, in Roman capitals) Device =I.M.H. (triad of initials in Roman capitals, in field).

The issuer was John Howes, a grocer; 'John Howse, Grover appr. 1631, bound appretices 1652, 1658' (see C. Webb ‘London Livery Company Apprenticeship Registers’ (London, 1996-, xlviii, 84, 99, as cited in token number 7878 in the Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles, 62, The Norweb Collection: Tokens of the British Isles 1575-1750, Part VIII - Middlesex and Uncertain Pieces. The arms of the Worshipful Company of Grocers are: Argent a chevron Gules between nine cloves Sable (J. Bromley, The Armorial Bearings of the Guilds of London: a record of the heraldry of the surviving companies with historical notes; with...[illustrations] by Heather Child...(London, 1960). Modern Charterhouse Street lies, in the ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London, and in the London borough of Islington.