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½ Penny Birmingham - Washington - Grate
| Issuer | Clark & Harris, Worton & Co. (Birmingham token issuers) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1795 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Pound sterling (1158-1970) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse lettering | CLARK & HARRIS WORTON & CO GRATE & FENDER WAREHOUSE LONDON 1795 |
| Edge | Lettered: PAYABLE AT LONDON LIVERPOOL OR BRISTOL |
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| Additional information |
Clark & Harris issued this piece through the Soho Mint operation network during the height of the British provincial token boom, when a near-total collapse of regal copper coinage in circulation forced merchants and manufacturers across the Midlands to commission their own halfpennies. Birmingham was the epicenter of this private coinage — Matthew Boulton's infrastructure made high-quality struck copper available to anyone willing to pay for a die.
The Washington connection places this squarely in a short-lived export and novelty market; Anglo-American trade tokens referencing the first president were fashionable briefly in the mid-1790s before U.S. authorities moved to suppress foreign copper circulating domestically.