1/2 Penny Wicklow - Cronebane / Miners Arms

The Associated Irish Mine Company operated the Cronebane copper mines in County Wicklow, and by the late 1780s the chronic shortage of small change in Ireland had made paying workers in exact coin nearly impossible. The company issued these halfpennies as a practical wage token — redeemable at the company truck shop, and almost certainly never intended to circulate widely. That they did circulate is evidenced by worn survivors throughout Wicklow and Dublin.

Cronebane was one of the most productive copper mines in the British Isles at the time, producing ore that fed the smelters at Swansea. The mine's own copper almost certainly ended up in these tokens.