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Ballykinlar tokens

Posted: 24 Jan 2017 17:59
by Mac
Ballykinlar Internment Camp Tokens 1919-1922

During the Irish war of independence the British military commenced the internment of known Irish nationalists at Ballykinlar. The Ballykinlar Internment Camp was located at Abercorn Barracks in present day Northern Ireland. At its peak the internment camp was home to several thousand internees. The camp was rather like a POW camp in that it had a certain autonomy over its own internal affairs. One of the manifestations of this was the issue of tokens by the internees for use as currency inside the camp.

The tokens are written in Irish, which translates as: “Irish imprisoned in Ballykinlar."

I came across some pics of these recently when I was looking for something else.
The section on Ballykinlar tokens in the main website will be upgraded with these larger pics shortly.

Meanwhile, here is a Ballykinlar One Shilling Token, face and reverse:

Image

Re: Ballykinlar tokens

Posted: 27 Jan 2017 21:12
by Mac
I updated the Ballykinlar Token page of the main web site with new, bigger better pics.

Re: Ballykinlar tokens

Posted: 28 Jan 2017 01:51
by ThePloughman
Uh nice. dunno anything about these. Are they rare? Nothin much out there on them

Re: Ballykinlar tokens

Posted: 31 Jan 2017 22:17
by Mac
Quite rare. They turn up occasionally in auction.

Re: Ballykinlar tokens

Posted: 07 Feb 2017 16:42
by Mac
Incidently, I have heard suggestions that there is a 2/6 token, but I have never seen one, or a picture of one.
It is a denomination that would make sense though.

Re: Ballykinlar tokens

Posted: 03 Dec 2017 00:06
by DOC
Rumours of a 10/- Ballykinlar token were well founded. By good fortune I came across this photo recently.

Re: Ballykinlar tokens

Posted: 03 Dec 2017 00:19
by ThePloughman
Nice! Do you know what is onthe reverse of it? I guess it is the same as the 5/- token.

Re: Ballykinlar tokens

Posted: 03 Dec 2017 00:24
by Series B notes
Are any tokens denominated in pounds known, such as 1 pound, 2 pounds, 5 pounds?

Re: Ballykinlar tokens

Posted: 03 Dec 2017 00:29
by ThePloughman
Yes. There are £1 tokens. You should have a look at the Ballykinlar token page on the irishpapermoney website for a full list of them.

Re: Ballykinlar tokens

Posted: 03 Dec 2017 12:29
by DOC
I don't have an image of the reverse. Just spotted the 10 shilling token in an old auction catalogue. I doubt that denominations higher than £1 exist. However, the 2s 6d would be a logical denomination which has not been seen to date.

Re: Ballykinlar tokens

Posted: 03 Dec 2017 13:40
by Mac
@Doc
Nice find! I will add it to the web site Ballykinlar page. That leaves just the mystery of the 2/6 to be solved.
The reverse of the 10 Shilling might be similar to the 5 Shilling, only a guess there though.

EDIT: Duly added to the main website :)

Re: Ballykinlar tokens

Posted: 03 Jan 2018 23:54
by DOC
Good guess. I can confirm that the 10 shilling token is the same size as the 5 shilling token. I have a scan confirming the relative sizes.

Re: Ballykinlar tokens

Posted: 04 Jun 2021 13:04
by Mac
Doing a bit of work on these now to add to the website page.

Here is a pic of the earlier tokens issued by the British for use in the camp. These were printed on coloured paper. 10 Shilling and £1 notes were on white paper.
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Ballykinlar-Internment-Camp-Tokens-British-Issue.jpg
Ballykinlar-Internment-Camp-Tokens-British-Issue.jpg (21.27 KiB) Viewed 7238 times

Re: Ballykinlar tokens

Posted: 07 Jun 2021 21:02
by DOC
Here is another variant of the 1 penny token. One example has a blue cast while the other example appears to have a much lighter blue colour.

Re: Ballykinlar tokens

Posted: 06 Feb 2022 19:33
by DOC
By good fortune, I came across another, Ballykinlar 10 shillings token. The reverse design aligns with that of the 5 Shillings token. An image of the front and reverse is attached.

Re: Ballykinlar tokens

Posted: 06 Feb 2022 22:01
by Mac
Nice! Good to have confirmation of the reverse. Thanks for that.

Re: Ballykinlar tokens

Posted: 22 May 2022 11:21
by DOC
A Ballykinlar 6 pence token sold at auction yesterday for more than ten times the estimated hammer price. This appears to be the first example of this type sold at auction which would explain the significant interest.

An account by one of the internees, Francis O’Duffy, suggests that there were 3 token issues in Ballykinlar used as money in Camp 2. The prisoners were not allowed to bring ordinary money into the camp so the British Commandant issued tokens for sums of 1d to £1 against their ‘cash held by him’. This first issue was suspended due to irregularities but the British Commandant allowed the prisoners to use tokens under a new scheme operated by the prisoners’ Camp Commandant. These tokens were similar to the first issue but tore easily and were replaced by the better known round card tokens printed by the firm of ‘O’Loughlin, Murphy & Boland’ located at Upper Dorset Street, Dublin.

The example sold at Whyte’s would appear to be from the first issue.

Re: Ballykinlar tokens

Posted: 28 May 2022 15:24
by Mac
These earlier tokens are seriously rare.

Lot 253, it fetched 1,250 Euro plus fees.