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England - 1795

Cheapest Booksellers in the World - 2nd, edge variant

Obverse:

Profile bust of J. Lackington to right.

Legend:

J. LACKINGTON FINSBURY SQUARE

Exergue:

1795

Size:

29 mm.

Edge:

Milled to left.

Reverse:

Fame stands, facing left surrounded by a circle and inner and outer legends.

Legend:

Inner: CHEAPEST BOOKSELLERS IN THE WORLD.

Exergue:

Outer: HALFPENNY OF LACKINGTON . ALLEN & C^o

Vern's Comments:

No. 15 D&H 357a
Obverse :- Lackington's bust in profile. Legend: J. LACKINGTON FINSBURY SQUARE. with 1795 beneath the bust.
Reverse :- Figure of fame. Legend as No. 14 with a line separating the two circles of lettering.
Edge :- Diagonally milled. Diesinker, Dixon; manufacturer, Lutwyche. Common.

Comments. There is a variety of this token, D&H 358, with the figure of fame on the reverse smaller; there is no separating line between the inner and outer legend, and the lettering is smaller and neater. Common. (This is not that variety)

In all, seven tons of these tokens were struck, making Lackington the largest issuer of commercial coins in London.

The Memoirs of the First Forty-Five Years of the Life of lames Lackington, written by himself and published in 1791, provide ample information about this enterprising and ambitious man. His story is the popular one of a destitute boy who became wealthy through his own exertions and ability. He was born in Wellington, Somerset, in 1746, and as a child sold halfpenny pies by crying them in the streets. At fifteen he was bound apprentice to a shoemaker in Taunton, where he joined the Wesleyans and learnt to read. When he was out of his time he went to Bristol, Bridgwater, Taunton and Exeter, in search of work and settled at Kingsbridge where he taught himself to write in his spare time. He was twenty-three.

He married in 1770, and the day after the wedding the bridal pair had only a halfpenny, and the clothes they stood in. Lackington's wages were 9/- a week, and his wife turned to shoebinding to supplement their meagre income, but ruined her health in the attempt.

In 1773 James travelled alone to London and worked as a journeyman shoemaker for a Mr. Heath, in Fore Street, Cripplegate. His wife later joined him and worked for the same master. Lackington began to buy and sell second-hand books, and in 1774 he set himself up as a bookseller at No.46 Chiswell Street. Shortly after this both Lackington and his wife were ill, the latter dying. In 1776 he married again; and in 1778 entered into partnership with John Dennis, an oil man, who provided much needed capital. The partnership, known as Lackington & Co., was dissolved by mutual consent in 1780. Lackington built his business on a basis of small profits with quick sales and no credit.

As the business grew he bought No.47 Chiswell Street and extended his premises. By 1791 the profits reached £4,000 a year. In 1794 he opened the grandiloquently styled "Temple of the Muses" and the tokens were issued from this establishment. In 1795 Peregrine Pinda published a severe skit entitled Ode to the Hero of Finsbury Square congratulatory on His Late Marriage and illustrative of His Genius as his own Biographer. Verse 30 refers to the tokens: -

"But tho to Merit envy's ever blind,

(The Muse tells Truths-and who shall dare to stop her?)

It could not check 'Our Hero's' active Mind

From sending forth his Miniature-in copper!

And Moorfield's Coin was hail'd with many a grin

Till Hints came out, and then the Coin went in!"

Lackington retired in 1798, leaving the business in the hands of his third cousin George Lackington, and Robert Allen, both of whom had been in the shop since boyhood. In 1804 he published a volume of "Confessions" which was written to contradict some of the religious views expressed in his "Memoirs". His last years were spent as a retired gentleman in Budleigh Salterton where he died in 1815 at the age of 69.

Commercial Coins 1787-1804., pp. 110-112

England — Middlesex

D & H 357a — Lackington`s

Bell Pg: 110-112

O: Similar to last, but with FINSBURY SQUARE 1795 in place of cross under the bust.

A. 253a

R: The same as last.

E: Milled to left.

Cheapest Booksellers in the World - 2nd, edge variant