Tavern Checks and Tokens
Many publicans
issued their own tokens during the 19th century. Indeed, this was
a fairly common practice in taverns and beer
shops. Most of those issued in Birmingham and the Black Country were
made by local diesinkers and stamping workshops. Also serving the role
of advertisements, these tokens were generally called checks. The
publicans name was also stamped on the check. This would mean that
that it could only be spent when he was the licensee - if you turned up
just after the publican had left the pub you were out of pocket because
the new gaffer would not honour it. Checks
existed for all values between 1d and 3d - ale in the mid-late 19th
century was 2d or 3d a pint. 2½d was the price of a bottle of
stout. Checks were one publican's method of ensuring their money came
back over the counter. Another incorrigible method was to establish an
agreement with local foremen to pay his workers in the pub on Saturday
evenings. This sort of activity was rife in areas like Digbeth where
large numbers of migrants used popular drinking houses as places to seek
labour. The temptation to launch into a heavy drinking session with
fresh pay proved irresistible to many labourers and the publican would
pay the foreman a 'kickback' for such sales.
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