1/2 Penny Hampshire - Emsworth / J. Stride

Emsworth, a small port on the Hampshire coast, was producing oysters and corn in volume by the 1790s, but small change from the Royal Mint was chronically scarce. J. Stride — almost certainly a local tradesman — issued this halfpenny token under the wave of private copper coinage that flooded provincial England between roughly 1787 and 1797, filling a gap the government had left open for decades by neglecting copper production entirely.

The Dalton-Hamer listing at DH#15 places this among a small cluster of Emsworth issues, none of which circulated far beyond the immediate locality.