1/2 Penny Claudius Romanus - Pax Placid

This is a halfpenny token, not a regal issue — "Claudius Romanus" identifies it as one of the many privately produced copper pieces that flooded British commerce in the latter half of the 18th century to compensate for a near-total collapse in official small-denomination coinage. The Royal Mint had effectively abandoned halfpenny and farthing production for extended stretches, leaving merchants, manufacturers, and local authorities to fill the gap themselves. Atkins 42 places this piece within that well-documented but often poorly understood emergency commercial currency.