Patent tokens of this type were privately issued trade pieces, circulating in the gaps left by chronic shortages of official British small change — a problem that plagued commerce well into the nineteenth century. Walker's tokens served a transactional purpose the Royal Mint was, for long stretches, unwilling or unable to address.
The brass composition and sub-gram weight place this among the lighter tradesman issues, consistent with pieces intended more as receipts or advertising tools than as honest weight-for-value currency.
Patent tokens of this type were privately issued trade pieces, circulating in the gaps left by chronic shortages of official British small change — a problem that plagued commerce well into the nineteenth century. Walker's tokens served a transactional purpose the Royal Mint was, for long stretches, unwilling or unable to address.
The brass composition and sub-gram weight place this among the lighter tradesman issues, consistent with pieces intended more as receipts or advertising tools than as honest weight-for-value currency.