½ Penny Dorset - Sherborne / Preter, Pew and Co.

Reverse

Central ornate cypher below a hive and 17 bees, beaded border

Lettering: P P & W

Translation: Pretor, Pew and Whitty

Edge

Plain with incuse legend

Lettering: PAYABLE AT THE BANK IN SHERBORNE + DORSET +

Comment

There is only one eighteenth-century provincial coin series - the halfpennies of Pretor, Pew and Whitty, the owner-partnership of the Sherborne and Dorsetshire Bank - that has any overt claim to have been issued by a bank (in the strictest sense). Even then, the partnership operated a virtually inseparable grocery business in which the roots of the bank lay.

There were no other tokens put out for miles around, at the professed time of its issue, and that the Sherborne halfpenny circulated locally as familiar small change over a not insignificant period, is evident from the appreciable wear of the twelve examples of the type in the Dorset County Museum, and of the number that are still in private hands.

Bearing in mind what must have been the halfpenny's original incidence it comes as some surprise to find that, although dated 1793, it is not listed in any of the early catalogues of provincial coins until its inclusion in James Conder's Arrangement of 1798. Its absence from Samuel Birchall's Descriptive List, which was not published until the early part of 1796, is especially significant since, in addition to his own observations, he had the benefit of information supplied by a number of enthusiastic collectors of provincial coins; and by Matthew Young, a dealer with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the contemporary token scene. One of Birchall's correspondents was Miss Banks and, although she was usually adept at securing pieces soon after they were struck, it is known from her own manuscript evidence that she did not acquire her specimen until 2 January 1797. All this naturally raises the question of whether the date on the token was its actual date of issue.

Interesting fact