1 Quart Robert Keeling

Robert Keeling was a Gibraltar merchant who issued this copper quart as a private token during a period when the garrison's official small change supply had broken down almost entirely. Britain had not yet established a formal colonial coinage for Gibraltar, and tradesmen filled the vacuum themselves. Keeling's issue is among the earliest and most documented of these merchant tokens from the Rock, catalogued by both Lyall and Pridmore, which suggests it circulated widely enough to attract serious numismatic attention well into the twentieth century.