Exploring Brokers’ Medals

They are variously called broker’s medals, broker’s badges, or broker’s passes. They are silver medals that the City of London issued between 1697 and 1889 to brokers. Brokers were to carry the medals while transacting business and produce them when asked as proof that they were properly licensed.

Nothing had been written about their history until J.B. Caldecott’s 1905 article, which can be found here. Caldecott’s article appears to have been written more for the general public’s interest rather than as a scholarly numismatic piece. I began collecting them in 1988, and I started researching them at that time. A summary of that research appears on this website. More details appear in the book, which can be ordered here.

Undoubtedly, there is more information out there, and there are certainly additional types and varieties of medals in private hands or in the collections of smaller museums. The hope is that this short study will result in people bringing new information and varieties to light. Anyone who has information or new varieties to add to please contact me, so future editions can be updated.

-John M. Naylor