1 Farthing Lancashire - Manchester / Falkner Brothers

Falkner Brothers operated as textile merchants in Manchester during the height of the provincial token era, when the chronic shortage of regal small change forced tradespeople across Britain to commission their own copper pieces. Parliament had effectively abandoned low-denomination coinage for decades, and by the 1790s private traders had filled the void so thoroughly that some estimates put the number of distinct token types in circulation at over 600.

The Withers reference places this among a well-documented Manchester sequence, though Falkner Brothers tokens are not frequently encountered, suggesting either limited issue runs or concentrated local circulation that kept survivors within a narrow geographic area.