During the 17th century, official money made under the king’s licence was often very scarce and to counteract this some individuals, merchants and borough corporations often issued their own coinage – tokens. These had the issuer’s name or his crest or motto and a statement of what he was – eg, merchant, distiller etc. These pieces were issued between 1650 and 1680 and passed locally as small change. They were readily accepted by locals as they knew the issuers and with virtually no official small change in circulation, the tokens had to suffice. There were 32 different issuers of tokens in Galway city during that time.
Trends changed over the years, and by the 19th century, there were fewer issuers of such tokens in the city and they produced them for different reasons. Numismatic souvenirs of our industrial past are very varied as can be seen from the four ‘tickets’ or tokens’ from that period we have illustrated today.
A. Persse’s Distillery: The original Persse Distillery was located at Distillery Road, Newcastle. The original Nun’s Island distillery was opened in 1815 by the Joyce family. In 1840, the Persse family bought it and converted it into a flour mill. When the lease ran out on the Newcastle operation, they moved the distillery to Nun’s Island and closed the woollen mill. By the 1870s they had an output of 400,000 gallons of whiskey annually. The ‘Tally Ticket’ illustrated was in use from c1870 to 1914 when the distillery closed. It was a form of ‘clocking in’ for casual labour. The number 110 was a works number. Workers deposited their tickets on a tray on their way in to work. A ‘Tally Boy’ would collect them later and mark the numbers. At the end of the week, payment would be made for the days the number was logged in.
B. Burke’s Distillery: This was located at the lower end of Quay Street where the Leonardo Hotel is today. Edward C Burke was the owner. It had a brief span of life and closed in the 1860s thanks to the opening of the railways which allowed the large distilleries to transport their wares to much wider markets, thus forcing the smaller distilleries out of business. Burke’s was known as ‘The Quarter Barrel Distillery’ and also the ‘Quay Street Distillery’ and their token shows a fanciful adaptation of the Arms of Galway. The ship has been changed to a Man-of-War with a dog’s head figurehead. The tickets were used to pay carters ferrying in grain to the distillery, for every load the carter got a ticket from the gatekeeper. At fixed intervals, the carters surrendered their tickets for money. This avoided an elaborate account system and also the risk of the gatekeeper being robbed if he was using money.
C. J Fortune & Co: These were the forerunners to Alexander Moon & Co, in fact Moon was Fortune’s son-in-law. They were drapers, hosiers, hatters, haberdashers selling woollens and linens. The business opened in the 1840s when this dual-purpose ticket was issued, it served as an advertisement and also as a token to the value of one farthing. For a long time in the 19th century, very few farthings were issued. Drapers and bakers used farthings in their prices quite a lot, so when they were in short supply, these tickets were used by the shopkeeper as change for a farthing.
The illustrated ticket was probably first used to advertise the new business and thereafter as a farthing token. They went out of use about 1860.
D. Galway Harbour carter’s ticket from about 1880: When ships came into the harbour, the problem was to get them offloaded as quickly as possible. The carters employed to do the job were paid for each load carried to the stores. To avoid long delays at the store houses, these tickets were used. The carter’s load was weighed in at a weighbridge by a ‘Tally Man’, who presented him with a numbered ticket. The number was recorded with the weight of the load. When the ship was finally off-loaded, the carter would present himself to the Accounts Office with his tickets. The weights of each load were added up and the carter was paid per ton or per hundred weight, whichever was the case. The number on this piece is 183. These tickets went out of use about 1920.
