1/2 Penny Warwickshire – Wilkinson / Forge

John Wilkinson issued these tokens largely to solve a practical problem of his own making: the British Royal Mint had effectively stopped producing small copper coinage, leaving industrial employers like Wilkinson unable to pay workers in anything smaller than a shilling. His ironworks at Bradley, Broseley, and elsewhere employed thousands, and without small change, the truck system — paying in company credit rather than coin — was the only alternative. Wilkinson minted his own.

The Wilkinson halfpennies became some of the most widely circulated private tokens of the entire conder token era, accepted well beyond his own workforce across the West Midlands.