1/2 Penny Regal Imitation - George III right, uniface

Regal imitations occupied a legal grey zone in early nineteenth-century Canada. With chronic small-change shortages and no domestic mint, merchants and token issuers produced copper pieces closely imitating official British regal coinage — close enough to circulate without question, distinct enough to avoid a direct forgery charge. The CCT BL-18 is uniface, suggesting either a planchet failure, a trial strike, or a piece deliberately made one-sided, possibly as a check piece or from a defective press run.

By 1835, British authorities were already moving to suppress the token trade in the colonies, a campaign that would intensify through the 1840s.