Lyme Regis Tokens

Between 1648 and 1672, no copper coins were produced by the Government at the time due to the rise in the price of copper caused by the war with France.

There was a shortage of small change, so many towns, merchants and traders produced their own copper or metal alloy tokens to allow day to day transactions to continue. Since it was illegal to issue coins of the realm, the coins made to facilitate trade were known as tokens in order to avoid any implications of forgery.

The most common tokens from Lyme Regis are Lyme Regis Borough farthings, but the museum has examples of copper farthing tokens produced by Amyell Hart and Abraham Pitts. The museum's rarest token on display was found on Lyme’s east beach by metal detectorist Phil Goodwin in 2014, after storms and during the new sea wall works. The 25mm brass token has irregularly punched lettering and is inscribed “MARY ANNING MDCCCX” (1810) on one side and “LYME REGIS AGE XI” (11) on the other.