The John Sweeney Collection of Irish Tavern Tokens
The John Sweeney Collection of Irish Tavern Tokens
2013, 113 pages.
Irish Tavern Tokens is written for numismatists, be they collectors or students of the subject, and it illustrates 350 examples from a catalogue of over 400 Irish tavern tokens. Most were struck by the company controlled by John Craig Parkes at the Coombe in Dublin. Individual tokens are fully described and are cross-referenced to other popular tavern token catalogues. When known, the provenance of an individual token is listed. Each piece, including the issuing proprietor, has been carefully researched and recorded and where a ‘social context’ is understood, that too is included, making the finished volume a comprehensive commentary on the licensed trade as evidenced by the tavern tokens of post-famine Dublin. For easy reference the book includes an index of types, an index of places and an index of issuers.