Scarce Union Steam Ship Company Limited Southampton 2D token

Union Steam Ship Company Limited Southampton 2 pence token as per images.The Union Steamship Company was formed in 1853 and it provided a service from Southampton to Cape Town via The Ascension Islands and St. Helena. From 1857 they had Mail contracts with a steaming time of 42 days. Some collectors assumed the tokens were used in Southampton, but there is no evidence for this.They were probably made in England.

The Union Steamship Company was the predecessor of the (then) present Union Castle Line. Although the tokens are inscribed with the word Southampton they are thought to have been used exclusively in Cape Town. This fact and their purpose has yet to be established. Four denominations are known, a 2d, 3d, 6d and 1/-.At the end of the 19th century, the companys name was changed to the Union Castle Line so the tokens must have been in use during the 1800s. The Union Steamship Company had a very close relationship with South Africa, regularly calling at our ports in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London and Port Natal (Durban). However, it also had trade routes with other foreign ports, including Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Hamburg, St. Helena, Ascension, Mauritius, Zanzibar, Ceylon etc.

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