3 Pence Worcestershire - Birmingham / Workhouse

Birmingham's parish workhouse system operated under chronic fiscal pressure in the early nineteenth century, and by 1813 the national copper coinage was so deficient in circulation that institutions like the Birmingham Workhouse resorted to issuing their own tokens to pay inmates for piecework and to manage internal transactions. This piece is among the heavier copper workhouse tokens documented — 66.7 grams places it well above most contemporary trade tokens, a deliberate choice to represent genuine copper value rather than mere fiduciary convenience.

Recorded by both Withers and Davis, it sits in a well-catalogued but thinly traded corner of the token series.