Gorse Cotton Mill Chadderton This location is in the North of England near the old Lancashire cotton mill town of Oldham [Old Hamlet] around 9 miles from Manchester. Although many of the Cotton Mills have disappeared, a lot still remain dotted here and there, most having lost their tall chimneys, an escape for the smoke from the steam boiler furnace. Cotton spinning has long since ceased around Oldham, leaving the remaining mills to be used by various other companies or left derelict leading to eventual demolition.

The author of this web page is a private collector of James.1 and Charles.1 Hammered Farthings. which are purchased, scanned and then banked..


An exercise is being attempted to determine how many different punctuation varieties exist for the BMC 340 Charles.1 Rose Farthing. The identification number being taken from the book by Charles Wilson Peck "English copper, tin and bronze coins 1558-1958 in the British Museum" regarded by many as the bible. Unfortunately now out of print but second hand copies can still be picked up for around £80.00.

This exercise has previously been attempted in the Spink Circular of September 1981 in an article by Graham Entwisle, a facsimile of which was sent to me a few years ago by Colin Cooke, a leading coin dealer and collector of this series, resident in the Manchester area..
A total of 12 different combinations were listed in the article, six of which have not been picked up in the 18 depicted below plus one reverse legend. Feedback was requested in the article but I have no idea if anything became of it.
A similar tabular format has been used below for recording the variations.

Basic description of BMC 340
Type 2f
Single arched crown on both sides
Two sceptres saltire through crown on obverse
Single rose below crown on reverse
Privy mark crescent (top centre on obverse) / crescent (end of legend on reverse)

Punctuations are represented by standard keyboard characters.
The semi colon is used for for apostrophie stop
The stop is only represented at the bottom, although sometimes it is in the middle or top
The swiggle is used to represent the privy mark, cresent, on the reverse where necessary

The naming suffix allocated to BMC number are not in any concrete defined order, nor are the obverse and reverse suffix
They are only there at the moment for indentification purposes.

One or two may have had assumptions made, so confirmation of the different dies would
probably help with fully defining the variants and how many exist.
On BMC340-4 the apostrophie stops are not totally clear and there is only a slight trace of a stop between ET and HI.
On BMC340-7 there is only a slight trace of stop between ET and HI
On BMC340-17 Stop after CAROLV could be apostrophie stop, some assumptions made
on punctuation
On BMC340-18 Stop under apostropie between MA and BRI is not clear, apostrophie maybe a comma.
On BMC340-12 Punctuation is not totally clear

Table 1 - Different Obverse and Reverse Punctuations

Face Legend and Puctuation
Obv A CAROLV D G MA BRI
Obv B CAROLV D ; G MA ; BRI
Obv C CAROLV D ; G MA ; BRI ;
Obv D CAROLV D : G MA : BRI
Obv E CAROLV D : G MA : BRI :
Obv F CAROLV . D ; G MA ; BRI ;
Obv G CAROLV D ; G MA ; BRI :
Rev 1 FRA ET HI REX
Rev 2 FRA ; ET . HI ; REX
Rev 3 FRA ; ET . HI ; REX . ~
Rev 4 FRA ; ET . HI ; REX ~ .
Rev 5 FRA ; ET . HI ; REX . ~ .
Rev 6 . FRA ; ET . HI ; REX
Rev 7 . FRA ; ET . HI ; REX . ~ .
Rev 8 FRA : ET . HI : REX
Rev 9 FRA : ET . HI : REX ~ .
Rev 10 FRA : ET . HI : REX . ~ .
Rev 11 . FRA : ET . HI : REX ~ .
Rev 12 . FRA : ET . HI : REX . ~ .

Click on the BMC340 number in the RH List No. column of Table 2
to view the coin or, if applicable, on the [+] to expand for die listing

Table 2 - Obverse and Reverse Combinations

Face Legend and Punctuation List No.
Obv A CAROLV D G MA BRI BMC340-1
Rev 1 FRA ET HI REX
Obv B CAROLV D ; G MA ; BRI [+] BMC340-2
Rev 2 FRA ; ET . HI ; REX
Obv B CAROLV D ; G MA ; BRI BMC340-3
Rev 4 FRA ; ET . HI ; REX ~ .
Obv B CAROLV D ; G MA ; BRI [+] BMC340-4
Rev 5 FRA ; ET . HI ; REX . ~ .
Obv B CAROLV D ; G MA ; BRI BMC340-5
Rev 7 . FRA ; ET . HI ; REX . ~ .
Obv B CAROLV D ; G MA ; BRI BMC340-6
Rev 10 FRA : ET . HI : REX . ~ .
Obv C CAROLV D ; G MA ; BRI ; BMC340-7
Rev 3 FRA ; ET . HI ; REX . ~
Obv C CAROLV D ; G MA ; BRI ; BMC340-8
Rev 4 FRA ; ET . HI ; REX ~ .
Obv C CAROLV D ; G MA ; BRI ; BMC340-9
Rev 5 FRA ; ET . HI ; REX . ~ .
Obv C CAROLV D ; G MA ; BRI ; BMC340-10
Rev 6 . FRA ; ET . HI ; REX
Obv C CAROLV D ; G MA ; BRI ; BMC340-11
Rev 7 . FRA ; ET . HI ; REX . ~ .
Obv D CAROLV D : G MA : BRI BMC340-12
Rev 8 FRA : ET . HI : REX
Obv D CAROLV D : G MA : BRI BMC340-13
Rev 9 FRA : ET . HI : REX ~ .
Obv E CAROLV D : G MA : BRI : BMC340-14
Rev 2 FRA ; ET . HI ; REX
Obv E CAROLV D : G MA : BRI : BMC340-15
Rev 10 FRA : ET . HI : REX . ~ .
Obv E CAROLV D : G MA : BRI : BMC340-16
Rev 11 . FRA : ET . HI : REX ~ .
Obv E CAROLV D : G MA : BRI : BMC340-17
Rev 12 . FRA : ET . HI : REX . ~ .
Obv F CAROLV . D ; G MA ; BRI ; BMC340-18
Rev 2 FRA ; ET . HI ; REX
Obv G CAROLV D ; G MA ; BRI : BMC340-19
Rev 2 FRA ; ET . HI ; REX

If any collectors have other fully identifiable punctuation variations in their possession
which can eventually be scanned for confirming and updating the tables and would care
to assist in a hopeful conclusion to this exercise.
Please send details to this e-mail address for attention

A natural progression to this exercise could be to determine the different dies associated
with each punctuation variant or/and to investigate if any of the same punches have been used
to cut other dies like the same letter punches or the same crowns or rose or sceptre punches.

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