1/2 Penny Gustavus Adolphus - Bel * Ona

This is one of the so-called "Evasion" halfpennies — private tokens struck by entrepreneurs exploiting a legal loophole that prohibited counterfeiting the king's coinage but said nothing about producing coins with entirely fictional monarchs. "Gustavus Adolphus" and the nonsense legend "Bel * Ona" bear no relationship to the actual Swedish king; the name was simply exotic enough to satisfy the technicality. By the 1770s, genuine regal copper had become so scarce that these evasions circulated freely alongside official issues with little public resistance.