Lottery token [realia].

London, 1694.

1 item

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Great Britain -- England.

FAST ACC 272098 (realia)

Purchase made possible by The Lois Green Schwoerer Fund for Library Acquisitions. From dealer's description: "LOTTERY. (HATFIELD, Thomas?) Copper Lottery Token. ‘The best and fairest chance at last.’ n.p. Copper lottery token, 3cm diameter. On one side stands the figure of Justice, scales in right hand and raised sword in left; on the obverse the lettering ‘THE BEST / AND FAIREST / CHANCE AT / LAST’; the figure of Justice is sl. worn at the raised extremities. v.g. T.C. Noble’s A Brief History of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers ... (London, 1889) notes that in 1694 the company temporarily leased their hall for a lottery, which was called ‘the best and fairest chance at last’ (p.49). John Nicholl’s Some Account of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers goes further, stating ‘the Lottery was instigated by a Mr Thomas Hatfield and was drawn at the Hall of the Ironmongers’ Company. Hatfield hired the Hall for eight days at a guinea a day and the Company also received five tickets’. A scarce early lottery token, apparently dating from 1694, the year the state lottery was introduced in England." Ordered from Jarndyce, D9410, 2020-09-16. Catalogue CCXLIII, Summer 2020, item #27.

272098