This talk will present a series of checks (tokens, or unofficial coins) used by farmers, based in the fens, from the 1880s to the 1970s. These checks were used to pay the seasonal workers who often came from the East End of London and stayed on farms or in camps, picking the various crops on different farms as the season progressed. At the end of the week, the checks would be exchanged for proper coins and notes. The checks meant that the farmer did not need to carry large amounts of small change. This is a very localised series of tokens, specific to the Fens, that are purely functional and have very simple designs. Almost 3000 different tokens are now known from 700 different farmers.
Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire
Family History Society
