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TOKEN
Unique ID: SUR-C277F6
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation 
A worn copper alloy token. Obverse has a bust, likely a Turk's Head with mustache and turban, facing left, with legend now lost to wear. The reverse has a long legend in cursive script, the only legible words of which are "Coffee [...] Ally" surrounded by another legend with a crescent initial mark, which is too worn to read. Circa late 17th century.
Notes:
This token possibly originates from one of several coffee houses in Exchange Alley, London. Other tokens from these houses feature a Turk's Head, or bust of Morat the Great, who was a tyrant in Dryden's Aurung Zebe. A similar coffee house with a sign of the Turk's Head device is mentioned in a weekly paper called "The Kingdom's Intelligencer", from 1662, which provides a late 17th century date for this type of token.
On the basis of parallels for this particular token from the collection of the museum of London and the Beaufoy collection, the obverse probably had the legend Morat ye Great Men did mee call, although this example is too worn to read. The legend around the edge of the reverse carries on the rhyme reading WHERE.EARE.I.CAME.I.CONQVERED.ALL. The longer reverse inscription most likely reads: Coffee Tobacco Sherbet tea and Chocolat retail'd in Exchange Ally, in six lines. This token was possibly designed by the medallist John Roettiers (1631 - 1703), a famous medallist of the time who was also mentioned by Pepys in his diaries.
Subsequent actions
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Chronology
Broad period: POST MEDIEVAL
Period from: POST MEDIEVAL
Period to: POST MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1650
Date to: Circa AD 1750
Dimensions and weight
Quantity: 1
Thickness: 1.2 mm
Weight: 4.05 g
Diameter: 24.3 mm
Personal details
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Materials and construction
Primary material: Copper alloy
Manufacture method: Milled
Completeness: Complete
Numismatic data
No numismatic data has been recorded for this coin yet.
Spatial metadata
Region: South East (European Region)County or Unitary authority: Oxfordshire (County)
District: South Oxfordshire (District)
Parish or ward: Moulsford (Civil Parish)
Spatial coordinates
4 Figure: SU5883
Four figure Latitude: 51.54292534
Four figure longitude: -1.16504412
1:25K map: SU5883
1:10K map: SU58SE
Grid reference source: From finder
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
References cited
No references cited so far.
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Timeline of associated dates
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