Token - Thorbecke's Cigarettes T1 Smoking Bear in Circle ND
1880 year| Brass | 7.65 g | 30.5 mm |
| Location | Australia |
|---|---|
| Type | Medals › Advertising medallions |
| Year | 1880 |
| Composition | Brass |
| Weight | 7.65 g |
| Diameter | 30.5 mm |
| Thickness | 1 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Technique | Milled |
| Orientation | Medal alignment ↑↑ |
| Updated | 2024-11-12 |
| Numista | N#413866 |
|---|---|
| Rarity index | 97% |
Reverse
Text only
Script: Latin
Lettering:
ALTHOUGH
USING EXQUISITE
TOBACCOS & BEST
RICE PAPER THE
MAKING BY MACHINERY
ENABLES THEM TO OFFER
TO THE CONSUMER
20 FOR 8D
10 FOR 4D
TOB. TRADE REVIEW 9/10/80
Translation: TOB. TRADE REV. = Tobacco Trade Review award: 9/10/1880
Edge
Plain
Comment
Thorbecke's brass advertising token undated.
Seen in Australia and New Zealand and is listed in Dean's ‘A Pot Pourri of Queensland Numismatica’ and in the Bertrand Catalogue
This is the Bear in a circle type.
There is another type (no circle around bear) which has three reverse types.
'The Times, London, Monday February 9 1880; Smoke Thorbecke's machine made 'Monopoly' cigarettes. London, 1881.' 'National Library of New Zealand - as paper ephemera, and there was a German company A H Thorbecke Co Mannheim also tobacco manufacturers. It appears that this token was issued by a London company, but mostly turn up in the Antipodes.'
The cigarettes were made in Great Britain but available in the colonies. Although London made, these cigarettes seem to have been sold to the Colonial & Empire market.
Perversely the bear is smoking a pipe rather than a cigarette, so it's obviously a very independently-minded bear. The token is about the size of a contemporary British penny, 30.5mm in diameter.
