The Palsgrave Head

This trade token, worth a farthing, was issued for a business at the sign of the Palsgrave Head, in Temple Bar without, Middlesex.

Boyne & Williamson (1889) reference London number 3062; Obv inscription: THE.PAVLSGRAVE.HEAD (around field, in Roman capitals) Device = Bust of the Palsgrave (in field); Rev inscription: WITHOVT.TEMPLE.BARR (around field, in Roman capitals) Device = I.D.R. (triad of initials in Roman capitals, in field).

The Palsgrave has been identified as Frederick V 'count palatine of the Rhine and elector of the Holy Roman empire (1596–1632) (Ronald G. Asch, ‘Elizabeth, Princess (1596–1662)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8638, accessed 11 Jan 2012]). See also token number 9012 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. Temple Bar formed a divisional bar between the ward of Farringdon, in the City of London, and Westminster, Middlesex; the area that lay in Westminster, now lies in the City of Westminster.