Middlesex hanging man

[x2rider]

This is a type of Token that I had wanted for a while .

 

Middlesex is where my dad was born and it's nice to be able to talk to him about these parts of history Some of which he was unaware of and other parts he is a wealth of info

 

This particular token is the Middlesex 831a

 

Depicts the demise of Tomas Paine , Political activist and revolutionist

 

May the Knave of Jacobin clubs never get a trick

 

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[Conder101]

The "End of Paine" series is interesting but unfortunately too many people like to collect the tokens issued by Thomas Spence and it tends to push the price to high for me. Especially considering the relative rarity of the pieces.

 

(And interestingly these pieces are probably NOT issued by Spence. He was sympathetic with Paine's views.)

[BillJones]

I have always enjoyed the reference to card games that are made on this piece. One more reason for the high prices is that this piece is listed in DeWitt/Sullivan as a political token. It is listed as 1796-2, an anti Jefferson piece.

[Mr. Smith Guesser]

Really cool token. I've seen the ones with the "Wrongs of Man" inscription. Can you explain what "May the Knave of Jacobin clubs never get a trick" means?

 

What is Jacobin clubs? What does it mean by "trick"?

[thebeav]

That is a cool token.....

 

My guess would be the Jack of Clubs never getting a trick in say, pinochle, spades or rummy perhaps .

 

Paul

[BillJones]

What does it mean by "trick"?

 

In bridge, hearts, spades and many other card games "a trick" is the term for winning a play in a hand. For example if the ace is the highest card in a suit, and you play an ace, baring a trump, you will take "the trick."

 

A trump is a suit of cards that takes precedent over the other three suits. Usually a player can only play a trump card if he or she don't have any of the cards in the suit that was led. In the game of spades, the spade suit cards are always trumps. In bridge it can be any of the four suits depending upon the bid.

 

[Mr. Smith Guesser]

Very cool. A nice dig on Paine...almost a curse.

[Conder101]

Definitely a dig or curse aimed at Paine. While Paine was very popular here before and during the Revolution, afterward he became an annoyance and he had to leave and go to England. He had a similar effect in England where his writings were pro-French revolution. This made him very unpopular with the Royalists (Hence the desire for the "End of Pain".) Eventually he had to flee England for France. He was well received there.....at first. But eventually his writing critical of what the revolution was becoming forced him to flee again. This time back to England. He always managed to annoy the people in power where ever he went..

 

The Jacobin Club was the Society of the Friends of the Constitution, a group of pro-French Revolution political activists. Knave referred to Paine kind of like a spokesman for the Jacobins. May he never get a trick, may he not be successful in his endeavors.