Aug
16th
Sat
16th
This is a token from my collection produced for Pidcock’s Menagerie in 1797. It is about the size of a small 5pence piece. Used as a form of currency during a time of specie shortage it was circulated as a form of payment for small goods. The bearer of the token would take it back to the menagerie to have it changed into Royal Mint coins. I think this small token is a poignant symbol of the commodification of animals in late eighteenth-century Britain.