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1/2 Penny Wiltshire - Devizes / J. Baster
| Issuer | J. Baster, Devizes |
|---|---|
| Year | 1796 |
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| Composition | Copper |
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| Obverse description | At centre, the heraldic arms of the town of Devizes depicted as a triple-towered castle with standards flying from each tower, presented within a shield. A circular Latin legend reading THE ARMS OF THE TOWN OF DEVIZES surrounds the shield, terminating with an asterisk, all within a beaded border. The engraving is executed in a clean neoclassical style typical of the Conder token series. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Lettered |
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| Additional information |
Devizes, a market town in Wiltshire, saw a surge of provincial token issues in the 1790s when a chronic shortage of regal copper coinage left tradesmen unable to make change. J. Baster's halfpenny belongs to that wave — privately issued to facilitate small commerce at a moment when the Royal Mint had effectively abandoned low-denomination production for over a decade. The Tenth Report of the Committee on Coin (1787) had acknowledged the crisis years earlier, yet Parliament moved slowly enough that merchants like Baster were still filling the void nearly a decade later.