1/2 Penny Lesslie and Sons

Lesslie and Sons operated as a hardware and general goods merchant in York (present-day Toronto), issuing these tokens during a period when official British copper coinage was chronically absent from Upper Canada. The provincial economy relied almost entirely on merchant tokens, American coins, and worn Spanish-American silver to conduct everyday trade. Joseph Lesslie, who had emigrated from Scotland, ran the business with his brothers and later expanded into wholesale and retail across multiple Upper Canadian towns.

The tokens circulated well beyond the Lesslie counters — a common fate for merchant copper in this period, accepted wherever someone needed small change.