These brass imitations of British regal halfpennies flooded Lower Canada during the 1820s and 1830s to fill a chronic shortage of authorized small change. They were produced privately — almost certainly in Birmingham — and entered circulation without any official sanction, tolerated simply because nothing else was available. The CCT BL-13 designation places this piece within Breton and Courteau's classification of the so-called "blacksmith" and imitation series, a loose grouping of unofficial coppers that dominated petty commerce in the St. Lawrence valley for decades.
These brass imitations of British regal halfpennies flooded Lower Canada during the 1820s and 1830s to fill a chronic shortage of authorized small change. They were produced privately — almost certainly in Birmingham — and entered circulation without any official sanction, tolerated simply because nothing else was available. The CCT BL-13 designation places this piece within Breton and Courteau's classification of the so-called "blacksmith" and imitation series, a loose grouping of unofficial coppers that dominated petty commerce in the St. Lawrence valley for decades.