"The King's Private Road ran between the two royal palaces of St. James's Palace, to the west of the City of London to Hampton Court further upstream on the Thames at Richmond, a distance of about 11 miles.. The route is presently followed by the current line of the King's Road in Chelsea, in the later seventeenth century and eighteenth century the road ran through fields and market gardens growing produce for the London urban market.

The regal name given to the road dates from the reign of Charles II (1660-1685) who made it a private road closed to public transport. During the reign of George II limited access to the route was given to local tenants and notables with passes being made available for a modest fee. Fees from the sale of passes were used to pay the gatekeepers employed to regulate traffic on the road and for the road repairs. "

"There have been several talks on these at the Token Congress in the UK - they are popular, as are theater tokens (same concept, the token is bought or given to a favorite and they get into see any play, any time - some of the theaters are still in existence 200+ years later, and I've often wondered what would happen if I took one of the tokens in! Most were for the year or season, but some were lifetime passes). They are definitely cool items, but as I've always said, one is an oddity, two is a trend, three is a collection. You are right at the edge!

"if I remember right the BM got the Montague Guest collection as a donation, which was one of the largest ever formed. There's a catalogue of that collection which was pretty much a reference work for the better part of a century. The series is covered in the Withers Token Book 3."

"And here's a blog with some good info, including the names of the individuals whose initials appear between the numerals of the date.."
Topic: KINGS PRIUATE ROADS bronze pass (http://www.worldofcoins.eu/forum/index.php?topic=16908.0)