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1/2 Penny Warwickshire - Birmingham / Johnson
| Issuer | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Year | 1793 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | DH#51 |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | Left-facing draped bust portrait of Dr. Samuel Johnson rendered in profile, with fine detail to the hair and collar consistent with late 18th-century engraving conventions. A quatrefoil ornament appears below the truncation, flanked on either side by two raised dots, with the subject's name and title arranged as a legend around the periphery of the coin. |
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| Additional information |
Issued by Matthew Boulton's commercial rival network during the great token boom of the 1790s, when chronic government negligence in supplying small-denomination coinage forced British manufacturers and merchants to commission their own copper. The Johnson series from Birmingham was part of a flood of Warwickshire provincial tokens produced to pay workers and facilitate local trade — without them, weekly wages in industrial districts simply could not be broken into usable change.
Dalton & Hamer number 51 places this piece within a well-documented but sprawling series. Struck to a respectable weight standard, unlike many contemporary tokens that shaved specs for profit.