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WILTSHIRE-AREA TOKEN COLLECTION OFFEREDIn England, tokens produced by local businesses were used as currency for centuries. A large number of them from the Wiltshire region of England, where the collector lived, are set to go under the hammer by RWB Auctions in Royal Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, England on September 24. -Garrett "During periods where there isn't much official currency around, local businesses tend to step in and create their own little tokens. So these would have been exchanged for people shopping, to pay people," she said. A large private collection featuring hundreds of tokens is being sold at the auction house on 24 September. The coins date from the 1600s to the 1950s, with the majority from businesses and towns in Wiltshire. They would have been made all over the country, all unique to their own area, but this collector lived in Wiltshire. 
A few in the collection from the 1600s are tiny, but very clean. Swindon can be clearly seen on one, with the name William Heath, and another is from Devizes. 
"This one's really interesting because it's got the name Grace Naish on it. That tells us it was made by a woman. The token has an imprint of what appears to be cloves on one side, an indication that Grace could have been a grocer, she added. Ms Day explained it is likely the tokens "would have been used no further than the town they were made in". 
It is not just shops, but pubs that issued them too. One from 1810, the regency period, is very well-preserved and decorated and was from business owner John Lamb in the Cricklade area. He covered a few trades, according to the coin, which reads draper, grocer and ironmonger. There are numerous tokens from over the centuries in the collection - from pubs in Trowbridge, to businesses in Melksham and tokens for pay from the old Great Western Railway works.
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