Charles Roe established his Macclesfield copper works in 1758, and by the 1780s the firm was among the more significant non-ferrous metal operations in northern England. These tokens emerged from the broader Provincial Token coinage of the late 18th century, a direct consequence of the Royal Mint's catastrophic neglect of small denomination coinage — by the 1780s, genuine halfpennies were so scarce and so heavily counterfeited that tradesmen across the industrial Midlands and North simply began issuing their own. Roe's tokens circulated as functional wages and change currency among the copper works' own workforce and local Macclesfield commerce.
DH#7 refers to Dalton & Hamer's classification of the Conder token series.
Charles Roe established his Macclesfield copper works in 1758, and by the 1780s the firm was among the more significant non-ferrous metal operations in northern England. These tokens emerged from the broader Provincial Token coinage of the late 18th century, a direct consequence of the Royal Mint's catastrophic neglect of small denomination coinage — by the 1780s, genuine halfpennies were so scarce and so heavily counterfeited that tradesmen across the industrial Midlands and North simply began issuing their own. Roe's tokens circulated as functional wages and change currency among the copper works' own workforce and local Macclesfield commerce.
DH#7 refers to Dalton & Hamer's classification of the Conder token series.