The Butchers' Arms

Michael Cope issued this trade token, worth a farthing, for his business at the sign of the Butchers' Company arms, in Goswell Street, Middlesex

Boyne & Williamson (1889) reference London number 1189; Obv inscription: MICHAEL.COPE (around field, in Roman capitals) = HIS / HALF / PENY (in three lines of Roman capitals, in field); Rev inscription: IN.GOSWELL.STREETE (around field, in Roman capitals) Device = The Butchers' arms (in field).

See also token number 7937 in the Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles, 62, The Norweb Collection: Tokens of the British Isles 1575-1750, Part VIII - Middlesex and Uncertain Pieces. Another unnamed token was issued by Michael Cope from this premises, see, 96.66/542, in the museum collection. The arms of the Worshipful Company of Butchers are: Azure two poleaxes in saltire, or blades inwards, between two bulls' heads couped in fesse argent, on a chief argent a boar's head couped gules, tusked or langued azure, between two bunches of holly vert, banded (J. Bromley, The Armorial Bearings of the Guilds of London: a record of the heraldry of the surviving companies with historical notes; with...[illustrations] by Heather Child...(London, 1960). Goswell Street, now Goswell Road, lies in the London Borough of islington, having previously been part of Middlesex.