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1/2 Penny Bedfordshire - Leighton Buzzard / Lace Making
| Issuer | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Year | 1794 |
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| Currency | Conder tokens (1787-1797) |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A standing lamb facing left, depicted in fine relief upon a ground line at centre, conveying the wool trade associations of the issuing region. The date 1794 appears in the exergue below the ground line. A continuous legend encircles the design along the periphery, naming the towns at which the token was redeemable. |
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| Reverse lettering | ·PAY AT LEIGHTON BERKHAMSTED OR LONDON 1794 |
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| Additional information |
This is a Conder token, one of thousands of privately issued copper pieces that flooded British commerce during the 1780s and 1790s when the Royal Mint essentially abandoned its responsibility to produce small denomination coinage. The regal copper supply had collapsed so completely that manufacturers, merchants, and local tradesmen began commissioning their own tokens just to make change. Leighton Buzzard was a natural candidate — the town sat at the center of the English pillow lace industry, where cottage workers depended on small coin for daily transactions that the Mint simply wasn't supplying.
DH#3 per Dalton and Hamer's authoritative census of the series.