1/2 Penny Middlesex - For General Convenience

Middlesex conder tokens flooded into circulation during the 1780s and 1790s to fill a catastrophic shortage of regal small change — the Royal Mint had struck virtually no copper coinage since 1775, leaving trade at a standstill in many parts of England. Merchants, tradesmen, and entrepreneurs issued their own halfpennies by the millions, many carrying little more than a vague public-interest motto to skirt vagrancy laws that required tokens to advertise a specific issuer.

DH#1019 falls squarely into that catch-all category. The phrase "For General Convenience" is essentially a legal hedge. Boulton's Soho Mint contract coinage of 1797 rendered most of these tokens obsolete almost immediately.