The Carpenters' Arms

Thomas Wollarsstone issued this trade token, worth a half penny, for his business at Gray's Inn Gate, Holborn, Middlesex.

Boyne & Williamson (1889) reference London number 1239A; Obv inscription: THO. WOLLARSSTONE. AT. GRAYES (around field, in Roman capitals) Device = Carpenters' arms (in field); Rev inscription: INN.GATE.YE.KINGSHIGHWAY (around field, in Roman capitals) Device = HIS / HALFE / PENNY / T.M.W. (in four lines of Roman capitals with triad of initials as bottom, in field).

See also, NN17554, in the museum collection, and token number 8048 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 Carpenters are: Argent a chevron engrailed between three pairs of compasses 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). Gray's Inn Gate, lay to the south of Gray's Inn, in Holborn, Middlesex; the area of Gray's Inn, is now in the London Borough of Camden.