The Catherine Wheel

Thomas Alldridge issued this trade token, worth a half penny, for his business at the sign of the Catherine Wheel, in West Smithfield, ward of Farringdon Without, City of London.

Boyne & Williamson (1889) reference London number 2839; Obv inscritpion: THO. ALLDRIDGE. AT. THE. CATORN (around field, in Roman capitals) Device = A Catherine wheel (in field); Rev inscription: WHEEL.IN.WEST.SMITHFEILD (around field, in Roman capitals) Device = HIS / HALFE / PENNY / T.M.A. (in four lines of Roman capitals with triad of initials as bottom, in field).

See also token number 7806 in the Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles, 59, The Norweb Collection: Tokens of the British Isles 1575-1750, Part VII - City of London. The Catherine Wheel is representative of St Catherine, a martyr who protested the persecution of Christians under the Roman emperor Maxentius. The spiked wheel on which she was to be execeuted broke when she touched, and so she was beheaded. This device was still used as a manner of execution until the 1900s, known as a Catherine Wheel, or breaking wheel, see Encyclopædia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/99687/Saint-Catherine-of-Alexandria. Retrieved 2011-10-17.