Great Britain (1790s) Farthing Conder Token, Middlesex, ‘Spence’s’ End of Pain-Pandora’s Breeches, DH-1110, MS63BN NGC. Obv. Gaunt man hanging on a gallows, END OF PAIN around, church in distant background. Rev. A pair of breeches exploding. Beneath, a snake with a man’s head cut off, around PANDORA’S BREECHES. A scarce and quite popular token, one of the many verbal puns in the Conder series against Thomas Paine, who published The Rights of Man in 1791. Although this Choice Mint State piece is largely tan-brown, it shows some interesting orange tints above the breeches that make them appear to actually be on fire! Although the Conder token reference (Dalton and Hamer) attributes this design to Spence, it is likely a Thomas Skidmore creation.
The DH-1110 farthings are “scarce” according to the Conder Tokens Digital Reference, first edition (Numisource, 2010), and all denominations of this design and the related End of Pain / Wrongs of Man motifs are quite popular as they are relevant to the American Revolution (and the French Revolution, for that matter). This is the first of this denomination we have ever handled. NGC Census: 2 in 63BN, 5 finer (7/2021).