The Lute

John Spicer issued this trade token, worth a half penny, for his business in Crown Court, Russell Street, Middlesex.

Boyne & Williamson (1889) reference London number 807; Obv inscription: IOHN. SPICER. IN. CROWN. COVRT (around field, in Roman capitals) Device = A crown (in field); Rev inscription: IN.RVSSELL.STREET.1667 (around field, in Roman capitals) Device = A lute HIS / HALF / PENY (in three lines of Roman capitals, with two above and one below sign of lute, in field).

John Spicer may have been a 'luteist, or musician, due to its being near to the Theatre Royal in Riding-house Yard, Drury Lane. The token may indicate the sign of one of the many music houses in that part of the metropolis at this period', J. H. Burn, A Descriptive Catalogue of the London Traders, Tavern, and Coffee-house Tokens current in the Seventeenth Century, presented to the Corporation Library by Henry Benjamin Hanbury Beaufoy, 2nd ed. (London, 1855), no. 385. Crown Court, Russell Street, lay in Westminster, Middlesex, the area is now part of the City of Westminster.