1/2 Penny Norfolk – Norwich / Dunham and Yallop

Dunham & Yallop issued this token during the acute small-change shortage of the early 1790s, when the Royal Mint had effectively abandoned copper coinage for over a decade. Provincial tradesmen across Britain filled the gap themselves, and Norwich — a prosperous textile and commerce center — produced several private issues of its own. The Anglesey Mining Company's "Cartwheel" coinage of 1787 had demonstrated that well-struck private copper could circulate with public confidence, which gave goldsmiths like Dunham & Yallop both the precedent and the incentive to follow.

The Conder token series, of which DH#28 is a catalogued example, was effectively killed by the Token Act of 1817, but by then most provincial issues had already collapsed following the Mint's resumed copper output in 1797.