PREV ARTICLE
NEXT ARTICLE
FULL ISSUE
PREV FULL ISSUE
MORE ON THE BRISTOL OLD VIC 'GOLDEN TICKET' TOKENJorge Proctor writes: Reading the article about the "golden ticket", you wrote: "Unfortunately, the article does not picture the token. Would anyone have an image, or know where to get one?". Well, ask and you shall receive. Please find below a link to where there is an image of the "golden ticket" (notice that this is from the University of Bristol, where the token was donated). Also, on another note, notice that the difference between this token, and what one of the other 50 issued looks like, is that the other 50 were individually numbered, where as this one says (and most likely also the other missing token), only "No." appears for the number, with no number of issue, and then the other 50 also say "The Proprietor", where as the "golden tickets" were issued with "The Bearer."
Thanks! Jorge found the original press release from the University of Bristol. Here's an excerpt. -Editor
The ‘gold’ ticket (one of only two issued) is actually made of silver and is very similar to the 50 silver tickets except it has the word ‘Bearer’ rather than ‘Proprietor’ on it and is not numbered. The tickets donated by Mrs Menez are accompanied by histories of their previous ownership, such as a bill of sale for one silver ticket at a cost of £20 dated 20 September 1855, and also include one of only two 'gold' versions ever issued. They will join the five silver tickets already held by the Theatre Collection, which is also home to the Bristol Old Vic Archive. Fifty of the ‘tickets’ were originally awarded in the 1760s to the fifty proprietors who each pledged £50 towards the cost of building a new theatre in King Street. This was at a time when a low paid domestic servant earned £2 a year and an entire family household could be run on £40 per year. The tickets took the form of a silver token, numbered between 1 and 50, which entitled the proprietor “to the sight of every performance to be exhibited in this house” – a promise the theatre honours to this day. In 1766, two so-called ‘gold’ bearer tickets were also issued to Edward Crump, a cabinet maker, and his wife Ann. The Crumps were not shareholders, but were given the special bearer tickets for “the great trouble and expense” that Crump had gone to in order to persuade others to make over the land on which the theatre was built. The whereabouts of these ‘gold’ tickets (which are actually made of silver and very similar to the 50 shareholder tickets) has been unknown – until now. Mrs Menez also donated the hand-drawn plans for the re-modelling of the frontage of the theatre in 1902, carried out by her great-grandfather, the builder, Henry Forse. These plans provide important information about parts of the theatre that were demolished in the 1970s. Forse was passionate about the theatre and it was he who collected the four tickets and other historic documentation and handed it down through his family.  
One of the other 50 normal tokens (this one is number 26): To read the complete article, see:
For images of the normal tickets, see:
To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
Ron Haller-Williams forwarded the press release as well, plus this article. His sleuthing also turned up online images of multiple normal
token examples, including #12 and #49. . Thanks! -Editor
To read the complete article, see:
Jorge and Ron both located stories about a newer set of Bristol theatre tokens. -Editor
Jorge writes: I found a news report from 2008 where the theatre was undergoing a refurbishment and following the fundraisers of 1766 another fifty silver tokens were issued by the theatre with the 1766 design, so these could be given to those donating £50,000 or more. . The new tokens were to be numbered from 51 to 100. To read the complete article, see:
Ron forwarded this link on the topic. -Editor
To read the complete article, see:
Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
|