Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1/2 Penny Warwickshire - Coventry / Kempson's
| Issuer | Peter Kempson |
|---|---|
| Year | 1797 |
| Type | Emergency coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | A detailed three-quarter perspective view of St John's Church, Coventry, rendered in finely engraved relief, depicting the Gothic nave, clerestory windows, buttresses, and central tower in the field. The curved legend ST JOHNS CHURCH arcs along the upper periphery, while the inscription ERECTED 1350 appears in the exergue below a straight ground line, separated from the central device. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Lettered |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Peter Kempson, a Birmingham button and toy maker, issued a prolific series of county tokens during the 1790s when chronic small-change shortages forced provincial tradesmen to mint their own currency. The Warwickshire series is among his most extensive, covering dozens of local subjects. This Coventry piece belongs to a documented run that Kempson produced not strictly for circulation but with the collector market in mind — the token trade had become commercially viable in its own right by 1797, and Kempson exploited it aggressively.
Dalton and Hamer 262 places it within a well-catalogued die sequence.