1/2 Penny Middlesex - London / Allen's

William Allen was a prolific issuer in the Middlesex conder token series, producing pieces during the height of the 1790s small-change famine that left British workers unable to break larger coin for daily wages. The Royal Mint's near-total neglect of regal copper coinage through the 1780s and into the 1790s created the vacuum that tradesmen like Allen filled — semi-officially, and at their own commercial risk.

DH#246 sits in a densely populated series; Dalton and Hamer catalogued dozens of Allen-associated varieties, and die linkages between issues suggest Allen sourced work from one of the major token manufacturing firms, most likely in Birmingham.