1 Penny Birmingham and Warwickshire

Issued during the acute small-change famine that gripped Britain in the early nineteenth century, this token is one of hundreds of private copper pieces that filled the void left by a Royal Mint that had effectively abandoned regal copper coinage for decades. Birmingham was the epicenter of this trade token industry — the town's button and toy manufacturers had the dies, the presses, and the copper, and they were not shy about using them. The Withers and Davis references place this piece firmly within the documented series, though die marriages across Birmingham issues are notoriously complex.