1 Farthing - Ferrar and Co. Silk Mercers, Haberdashers, Belfast

Ferrar & Company operated as silk mercers and haberdashers in Belfast during the late eighteenth century, a period when small-denomination copper and brass tokens flooded Irish commercial life to compensate for a chronic shortage of regal coinage. The British authorities had largely neglected to supply adequate small change to Ireland, and merchants — particularly in Ulster's growing linen and textile trade — took the matter into their own hands. Private token issues like this one functioned as de facto currency within a merchant's regular customer base.

The Withers and Batty references both catalog this piece within the broader Irish trade token series of the 1790s.