Convict Love Token - 1818 - Thomas Spicer
Thomas Spicer, 17, was tried and convicted at the Middlesex Gaol Delivery on 17 January 1818 for 10 counts of counterfeiting banknotes ranging in value from £1 to £10. Both he and his accomplice William Kelly were sentenced to death. Spicer's sentence was later commuted to 14 years' transportation and Kelly's was reduced to transportation for life. Both sailed for New South Wales on the Morley in July 1818, arriving 7 November 1818. By 1822 Spicer had been assigned as a stockman at Bathurst. He received his ticket of leave in 1825.
Transcription
Back
Token engraved with a crisscross border around the upper half, and the elaborate image of a pot plant with leaves and flowers extending across the lower half of the token and surrounding the date. Above the cursive text is a heart crossed with arrows:
Reportd &c left
To Suffer Feby 19th
1818
Front
Token engraved with a crisscross border and cursive text with a crossed heart at the top and a flower at the base. There is a tiny cross engraved above the number ‘17’:
Thomas Spicer
Cast for Death
17 Janr 1818
For Soft
Diameter
36.0 mm
Copyright: National Museum of Australia
