1 Farthing Birmingham - John Howard

Henry Hickman issued this piece as part of the broader conder token phenomenon, which exploded after the Royal Mint's near-total failure to produce adequate small change throughout the 1780s. John Howard, the prison reform campaigner who died in 1790 in Kherson while inspecting Russian military hospitals, was a popular subject for token issuers — his recent death and public reputation made him commercially viable on provincial copper.

Birmingham was the engine of the conder trade, with Soho Mint and numerous smaller operators supplying tokens to issuers across Britain. Hickman's pieces catalogued under DH#481 are among the more modestly circulated Birmingham issues of the period.