Issued during the height of the British abolitionist movement, this Middlesex halfpenny token was produced by private merchants filling a chronic shortage of regal copper coinage — the Royal Mint had struck virtually no halfpennies or farthings for general circulation since the 1770s. The design was explicitly abolitionist in intent, circulating as a piece of everyday commerce that doubled as a political statement at a moment when Wilberforce's campaign was actively lobbying Parliament.
Dalton and Hamer's cataloguing of this piece as DH#1037 places it among dozens of documented die varieties in the Middlesex series, where private issuers frequently recycled or modified dies.
Issued during the height of the British abolitionist movement, this Middlesex halfpenny token was produced by private merchants filling a chronic shortage of regal copper coinage — the Royal Mint had struck virtually no halfpennies or farthings for general circulation since the 1770s. The design was explicitly abolitionist in intent, circulating as a piece of everyday commerce that doubled as a political statement at a moment when Wilberforce's campaign was actively lobbying Parliament.
Dalton and Hamer's cataloguing of this piece as DH#1037 places it among dozens of documented die varieties in the Middlesex series, where private issuers frequently recycled or modified dies.