SIR – I wondered if some of your readers who may have been miners may be good enough to help me.

I was a miner in the Yorkshire pits for 29 years and have now retired. For the past several years, by way of a hobby, I have been an avid collector of colliery checks, tallies or tokens.

These were brass discs and were embossed with the individual colliery name and stamped with the miner’s number. They were used as a safety measure to record an accurate account of men underground at any one time.

Unfortunately, I have very few from the Yorkshire coalfields. I would love to hear from anyone who worked at these old mines.

Are there any fellow ex-miners, or indeed anyone out there who could please help me obtain any checks/tokens from the now long closed collieries of your area?

Any help would be most appreciated.

Peter Harrison, Potovens Lane, Wrenthorpe, Wakefield, WF2 0QG