1660-1685 Charles II Touch Piece Copper Token - BMC 499

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  • Regular price £495.00


BMC 499.

29mm. Bi-metallic. Tower Mint.

This interesting token was used to control access to the Touching Ceremony, so that only those authorized would receive a gold touch piece. Peck hypothesizes that this type began to be used around when the dedicated gold touch pieces were struck, in 1664/5. The bimetallic flan may have been intended to make counterfeiting more difficult, or else to distinguish tokens distributed for different ceremonies.

Good Fine/Nearly Very Fine and rare.