1/2 Penny Warwickshire – Wilkinson / Forge

John Wilkinson issued these tokens largely out of necessity — the chronic shortage of regal copper coinage in Britain during the 1780s left industrial employers like him unable to pay weekly wages in small denominations. He ran the solution himself, commissioning Matthew Boulton's Soho Mint in Birmingham to strike them to a higher standard than anything the Royal Mint was producing at the time. Wilkinson tokens circulated across his ironworks in Broseley, Bradley, and Bilston, functioning as a de facto wage currency for thousands of workers.

Boulton's involvement matters: the relationship forged here directly informed his later contract for the 1797 Cartwheel coinage.