The Bear and Bowl

Henry Richardson issued this trade token, worth a half penny, for his business at the sign of the Bear and the Bowl, in St Mary Magdalen courtyard.

Boyne & Williamson (1889) reference London number 1882; Obv inscription: HENRY.RICHARDSON.AT. THE (around field, in Roman capitals) Device = A bear and a bowl (in field); Rev inscription: IN / MARY / MAYDLING / COVRT. YARD / HIS. HALFE / PENY (in six lines of Roman capitals, in field); octagonal.

See also, NN17843, in the museum collection and token number 9321 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 parish of St Mary Magdalen was off Old Fish Street (now Knightrider Street), see Henry A. Harben, A dictionary of London (London, 1918), in Castle Baynard Ward, in the City of London. Williamson, attributes the location of issue for this token as, St Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street (now Knightrider Street), see London Number 1882 in George C. Williamson, Trade Tokens issued in the Seventeenth Century; a new and revised edition of Wiliam Boyne's work (London, 1889); however there are a number of locations from which the token may have come, see plate 61 descriptions in the Sylloge of Coins, as above.