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1/2 Penny Thomas Halliday
| Issuer | Lower Canada |
|---|---|
| Year | 1812 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | 1 mm |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A seated female allegorical figure, representing Commerce or Justice, is depicted facing left in the central field, holding a pair of scales in her extended right hand and a cornucopia filled with fruit and grain in her left arm, resting upon a rocky exergual base with a small ship visible in the lower left field. The peripheral legend HALFPENNY TOKEN arcs across the upper portion of the coin, with the date 1812 prominently displayed in the lower exergue. The design is enclosed within a beaded inner border, consistent with Birmingham-struck colonial trade token production of the period. |
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| Reverse lettering | HALF PENNY TOKEN 1812 |
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| Additional information |
Halliday operated as a hardware merchant in Montreal, and like many colonial tradesmen of the period, issued his own copper tokens to address the chronic small-change shortage that plagued Lower Canada when official British coin supply repeatedly failed to meet demand. The colony's reliance on merchant-issued token coinage was so entrenched by 1812 that private pieces effectively formed the backbone of everyday retail transactions.
The Withers reference places this among a well-documented sub-series of Montreal merchant tokens, several of which share dies or were struck by common contractors in Birmingham.