Odd Fellows Quid Rides (Who are you laughing at)
Noted Advocates for the Rights of Man
Thomas Spence
Sir Thomas More
Thomas Paine
Thomas Spence (1750-1814) was a Radical democrat and advocate of the common ownership of land.
He kept a book-stall in High Holborn, London and produced tokens to promote his radical political ideas and proposals. At a time when Britain was fighting Republican France such activity could be taken as sedition and treason.
In 1794, along with other members of the London Corresponding Society, he spent seven months in Newgate Gaol on a charge of high treason, and in 1801 he was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment for seditious libel.
This token shows Prime Minister William Pitt frowning at his unpopularity and inability to control 'sedition and revolt', and the leader of the opposition Charles Fox laughing.
He kept a book-stall in High Holborn, London and produced tokens to promote his radical political ideas and proposals. At a time when Britain was fighting Republican France such activity could be taken as sedition and treason.
In 1794, along with other members of the London Corresponding Society, he spent seven months in Newgate Gaol on a charge of high treason, and in 1801 he was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment for seditious libel.
This token shows Prime Minister William Pitt frowning at his unpopularity and inability to control 'sedition and revolt', and the leader of the opposition Charles Fox laughing.