The Grocers' Arms

This trade token, worth a half penny, was issued for a business at the Irongate in St Katherine's, Middlesex.

Boyne & Williamson (1889) reference London number 1544; Obv inscription: AT / IRON / GATE (in three lines of Roman capitals, in field with device below) Device = Grocers' arms I.E.P. (triad of initials in Roman capitals around arms, in field); Rev inscription: HIS / HALFE / PENNY, the full name in monogram (in three lines of Roman capitals with monogram below, in field); octagonal.

The issuer may be John Patson who issued a token at the Irongate. See 96.66/644 in the museum collection, and token numbers 8251a - 8251c 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). The Irongate lay between Tower Wharf and Little Thames Street (now part of East Smithfield), in the neighbourhoods of Tower Hill and St Katherine's, in Middlesex; the area now lies in the London borough of Tower Hamlets.