Search Results for 'Persse distillery'

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.

In the 1600s trade tokens were given out by the Crown and were used as a royal licence to do business. If you were a trades or business merchant, you had to obtain this token. Some had dates on them and some had not. In Galway city and county there were 43 merchants listed in the period 1653-1679. By 1680, many of these tokens were replaced by the halfpenny copper coin.