Token Great Britain Conder Wilkinson Iron Master 1787 to 1793

Conder tokens are an interesting area of collecting. Many private mints struck their own farthing, halfpenny and penny tokens around the 1800s, and these are a great example. Struck in Shropshire, a county in the West Midlands of England, the amazing website ABC Coins and Tokens has this to say about them:

'The Wilkinson Series was wrongly attributed by Dalton & Hamer to Warwickshire and should have been included in the Shropshire section. John Wilkinson was one of the leading iron masters at the end of the eighteenth century and, more importantly for collectors of Conder tokens, the second person to commence their issue.'

These tokens are always found with the bust of John Wilkinson on the front ('obverse'), but the reverse comes in a few different versions:

- A blacksmith facing towards the right, working at a small anvil.
- A blacksmith facing towards the left, working at a huge anvil and furnace.
- A two-masted barge sailing towards the left.

The third design with the ship was also used for a 3-shilling-6-pence token issue struck in silver. The values below are for halfpenny tokens struck in copper or bronze:

COPPER WILKINSON TOKENS:
worn: $8 US dollars approximate catalog value
average circulated: $20
well preserved: $70
fully uncirculated: $200

SILVER WILKINSON TOKENS:
worn: $30 US dollars approximate catalog value
average circulated: $60
well preserved: $120
fully uncirculated: $300

A great website for collectors of Conder tokens is ConderTokens.net.
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