A Piece of Chimney Sweep History

From 1649 to 1672, traders and innkeepers issued tokens as a way to compensate for the lack of spare change. These tokens had designs celebrating different trade and were used as an official currency.

Some tokens were used as early as 1632, which was during the reign of Charles the First. They were around 1 inch in diameter and depicted the chimney sweep trade. The reverse sides of those coins were decorated with different floral designs.

The illustration above shows the front and back of one of those tokens. This coin was part of the “chimney sweep” series, which featured 36 coin designs altogether.

I had never heard of these coins before, and, as a coin collector and a chimney sweep, I would be excited to find one someday.

Have you seen or heard of these coins before? It would be amazing to recover any of them!

For more information on how you can be a part of the chimney sweeping trade, click here.