Joseph Priestley 50th Birthday Medallic Token 1783

18^th Century Token, Warwickshire, Birmingham, copper medallic Token, 36mm diameter, struck Joseph Priestley's 50^th birthday, 1783, engraved by John Gregory Hancock, bust of Priestley right, maker name below I. G. HANCOCK F. legend surrounding, JOSEPHUS PRIESTLEY. rev. struck en medaille, workbench with scientific apparatus, furnace to right with smoking chimney, date in Roman numerals in exergue, flower below, edge plain, weight 17.43g (D&H 33 S; Eimer 807; BHM 251). A few tiny nicks on edge, some light crazing to flan both sides probably a product of rusty dies, raised die cud on reverse rim, otherwise with a few light handling marks, extremely fine and scarce.

After serving a seven year apprenticeship with hardware manufactory Boulton and Fothergill starting in 1763, John Gregory Hancock continued to work for them in Soho Birmingham. However, by 1783 he had set up his own business in engraving as evidenced by what must be his first production of this medallic token struck for the Fiftieth Birthday celebration of Joseph Priestley which helped pave the way to working later on the Anglesey druid token series. In a 1785 directory he is recorded working as an independent Modeller, Dye-sinker and Chaser in Bartholomew Row, Birmingham.

Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), known for experiments with oxygen and electricity and inventor of soda water, lived in Birmingham from 1780-91 when he had to move to Hackney, London due to the Priestley Riots in Birmingham. He later moves to Pennsylvania USA where he died aged 70 in 1804.

Provenance:

This coin illustrated in "Coinage and Currency in Eighteenth Century Britain, The Provincial Coinage" by David W Dykes, page 164, number 146.