1/2 Penny Lancashire - Rochdale / J. Kershaw

Rochdale's textile trade was already generating significant commercial pressure on the national copper coinage by the early 1790s, and local merchants like Kershaw stepped in to fill the void left by a Royal Mint that had struck no regal copper since 1775. The Conder token boom that followed was as much a practical response to small-change famine as it was a vehicle for local advertisement and civic pride.

DH#143-147 spans several die varieties within the Kershaw issues, a range broad enough that attribution to a specific variety requires careful examination of edge treatment and minor device differences rather than the face design alone.