1793 End of Pain The Wrongs of Man, Conder Token, Middlesex D&H 833, NGC F12BN. This chocolate and dark brown British, End of Pain/Wrongs of Man Conder token has light even wear in keeping with the grade. The hard surfaces are original and clean with no notable abrasion marks or other distractions. The token is well struck with all of the devices evident. The dentils are full on both sides of the piece.

The End of Pain token shows a Thomas Paine hanging on a gibbet with a church in the distance. The gallows is smooth, and the mans legs hang straight down. The reverse portrays an open book that is inscribed THE WRONGS OF MAN JANY. 21:1793. The tokens edge is milled.

The inscription the END OF PAIN is a pun on Thomas Paines name. He was a radical who was hated by most Englishmen of the 1790s. The obverse portrayal of Paines end would be welcome by all loyal subjects. The reverse inscription is derived from Paines book entitled The Rights of Man, which was published in 1791. January 21, 1793, on the right page of the book, is the date that King Louis XVI of France was executed. The implication is that Paines ideas contributed to Louis death and would do the same for the English king.

While listed under Spences works by Dalton and Hamer, it is clear that Thomas Spence was a revolutionary. The royalist sentiment suggested by this token clearly indicates that Spence was not responsible for its design. It is much more likely to have been made by loyalists who wanted to capitalize on anti-radical fervor in those times. There were riots in 1791 in Birmingham and anti-Paine tokens were produced as a result. Researchers believe that Skidmore was responsible for the piece despite its earlier attribution to Spence.

Conder tokens, also known as 18th Century Provincial Tokens are a form of privately minted token coinage struck and used during the latter part of the 18th Century and the early part of the 19th Century in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. They were made because of the need for small denomination coinage for everyday transactions. Because the government did little to relieve the coinage shortage, private businesses and merchants issued tokens beginning in 1787 to pay workers at the Parys Mine Company. Within a few years, millions of tokens were struck and were in common use throughout Great Britain. Comprised mostly of cent and half cent denominations, the Conders had a few thousand varying designs. Collecting tokens became a national pastime. They were originally indexed by James Conder and later by Dalton and Hamer in their book, The Provincial Token Coinage of the 18th Century.