Cloth Seal, Commonwealth Alnage, Image by StuE, Found by Marty.
Found in Yorkshire, 15mm, 1.7g.
One disc probably from a four disc alnage seal showing the arms of the Commonwealth - twin shields, with St George's Cross and the Irish harp.
There is clear evidence of connection to other discs and stress marks where they have been torn off. Also the circular ridge and small central pit on the blank side can be found on known cloth seals. This is not a token.
See No.9 Plate 4 in G EGAN - Brit. Numis. J. 61, 31, 1991 - britnumsoc.org. :-
"Simple descriptions of the designs on seals and on coins of that period [Commonwealth] in two cases are identical: in the first instances a shield has a doubly engrailed top, with the cross of St George (for England), within a palm and branch wreath, and in the second these same arms appear together with a second similar shield with a harp (for Ireland) and with II above. The first shield appears alone on pennies, and the pair on half-groats of the commonwealth. The II indicates two pence on the seals (this is the amount of cloth tax paid to the authorities) as well as on the coins. The dies were not quite identical (those for the stamps in pi. 4, 9 left are more closely comparable than those on the right), but the similarities are surely once again far more than coincidental."
The bottom right seal shown in the paper cited above has a disc that not only matches the one shown here but also shows that the second disc was joined in the very area where an indent has been left, bottom left.
