1 Penny Somerset - Bath / Whitchurch and Dore

Whitchurch and Dore were Bath-based drapers who issued this token during the acute copper shortage that followed the suspension of Royal Mint penny production after Matthew Boulton's Soho Mint contracts expired in 1806. Parliament had not yet authorized new regal coinage, leaving provincial trade starved of small change for nearly a decade. Merchants across Britain filled the gap themselves — legally tolerated until the Suppression Act of 1817 abruptly ended the token trade and required redemption or destruction of all outstanding issues.