1818: Thomas Spicer
1818: Thomas Spicer
Thomas Spicer, 17, was tried and convicted at the Middlesex Gaol Delivery on 17 January 1818 for 10 counts of counterfeiting banknotes ranging in value from £1 to £10. Both he and his accomplice, William Kelly, were sentenced to death.
Spicer’s sentence was later commuted to 14 years’ transportation and Kelly’s was reduced to transportation for life. Both sailed for New South Wales on the Morley in July 1818, arriving 7 November 1818. By 1822 Spicer had been assigned as a stockman at Bathurst. He received his ticket of leave in 1825.
Diameter: 36mm, thickness: 3mm
Token engraved with a crisscross border and cursive text with a crossed heart at the top and a flower at the base. There is a tiny cross engraved above the number ‘17’:
Thomas Spicer
Cast for Death
17 Janr 1818
For Soft
Token engraved with a crisscross border around the upper half, and the elaborate image of a pot plant with leaves and flowers extending across the lower half of the token and surrounding the date. Above the cursive text is a heart crossed with arrows:
Reportd &c left
To Suffer Feby 19th
1818
More tokens to discover
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Tim Hitchcock
12th Mar 2021
There is an almost precisely similar token for Thomas Spicer in the Museum of London - https://collections.museumo...
Paul Ware
7th Nov 2017
Hi
It could be as simply as the engraver making a mistake and not wanting to start another coin!!! It looks as though the T is engraved over another letter??
One possible explanation ?
Dee Manders
25th Oct 2017
Just wondering if the cross on the t is actually a typo :) or damage to the token. Maybe it says " for Sofie"
Sophie_Jensen
11th Nov 2014
Hi Daniel – thanks for raising the question of the meaning ‘For
Soft’. Working out the transcriptions on many convict tokens is a difficult
task. As you have speculated - the most likely meaning is the use of the word ‘soft’as slang related to counterfeit money. It is always interesting to look at other possibilities too. There is another mark in between the ‘f’ and ‘t’ which may be another letter – perhaps ‘i’? - the transcription may have been changed or may be incomplete. Soft has many diverse meanings, including ‘sleep’, which almost fits with a death sentence. But it may also have had a personal meaning for the individual, or the inscriber may
have intended to add something else. It may be a name that we are misreading,or a contraction. These speculations on the tokens and the messages they hold are proof of the rich potential for further research in this collection. Hopefully work such as yours will uncover more of these convict’s lives,experiences, language and histories.
Daniel
8th Nov 2014
I'm studying English and focusing on Prison Voices, I was intrigued to know what the term "For Soft" means?