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Title
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Tally sticks
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Description
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Split tallies were used as a means of recording financial transactions, such as the payment of debts and taxes, from the 12th to the beginning of the 19th century in England. The details of a transaction would be recorded on a single length of wood with a series of cuts of different sizes used to indicate the amount of money involved. The wood was then split with each party taking one part as proof of the transaction; the two parts were known as a stock and a foil. As they fitted together perfectly any tampering of the notches could be detected by reuniting the stock with the foil. These four examples from the Fuller Collection are single parts (stocks), two can be identified as exchequer tallies from 1793, ten years after the use of tallies as Exchequer receipts was abolished but it wasn’t until 1826 that tallies were finally abandoned.
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Creator
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[unknown]
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Date
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[undated]
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Identifier
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Fuller/VII/42
Objects Exhibit
