1/2 Penny Middlesex - Spence's / Pig

Thomas Spence was a radical Newcastle schoolteacher who used halfpenny tokens as political pamphlets in metal. Denied access to conventional publishing and repeatedly imprisoned for seditious libel, he minted his own coins as the cheapest legal loophole available — each one a miniature broadsheet. His tokens circulated widely in London's working-class markets during the 1790s, when the Royal Mint's chronic copper shortage meant tradesmen's tokens passed without question.

The "Pig" token is among the more pointed of his productions, aimed squarely at Pitt's government. Spence was arrested again in 1794 under the suspension of Habeas Corpus, held for seven months without trial.