The Mercers' Arms

Michel Ridley issued this trade token, worth a farthing, for his business in Kent Street, Southwark.

Boyne & Williamson (1891) reference Southwark number 292; Obv inscription: MICKELL.RIDLEY (around field, in Roman capitals) Device = The Mercers' arms (in field); Rev inscription: IN.KENT.STREET (around field, in Roman capitals) Device = M.I.R. (triad of initials in Roman capitals, in field).

See also, 96.66/692, in the museum collection. The arms of the Worshipful Company of Mercers are: Gules issuant from a bank of clouds a figure of the Virgin couped at the shoulders proper vested in a crimson robe adorned with gold, the neck encircled by a jewelled necklace, crined Or and wreathed about the temples with a chaplet of roses alternately Argent and of the first, and crowned with a celestial crown, the whole within a bordure of clouds also proper (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).