1 Penny Bristol - Patent Sheathing Nail Manufactory / S. Guppy

Samuel Guppy's Patent Sheathing Nail Manufactory produced copper nails specifically for fastening the copper sheathing applied to the hulls of Royal Navy vessels — a technology that had become standard practice after the 1780s to prevent marine fouling and shipworm damage. The business was substantial enough to warrant issuing its own trade token in 1811, a period when the chronic shortage of regal copper coinage left manufacturers across Britain with little choice but to produce their own.

Guppy's son, Thomas Richard Guppy, would later become a founding director of the Great Western Railway and a collaborator of Brunel.