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1/2 Penny Middlesex - Political and Social series / Tooke
| Issuer | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Year | 1794 |
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| Value | 1/2 Penny (1⁄480) |
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|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | The reverse presents a rectangular tablet or panel design framed within a ruled border, containing two columns of surnames of jurors arranged in parallel. Above the panel, the name ERSKINE appears prominently as lead counsel, and below it GIBBS, with the surrounding legend BRITISH JUSTICE DISPLAYED curving along the periphery. The names within the panel — HAGGARD, HARRISON, HALE, DRAINE, WHITING, COVERDALE in the left column and MARIS, COOKE, PRATT, DUPONT, HARWOOD, BULLOCK in the right — commemorate the jury members at Tooke's 1794 treason trial. A small decorative rosette or floral ornament appears above the panel at the top of the field. The date NOVR. 22, 1794 records the date of the verdict. |
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| Additional information |
This piece belongs to the flood of privately issued copper tokens that swept Britain in the 1790s when Royal Mint production of regal halfpennies collapsed entirely — the last official issue had been 1775, leaving commerce to fend for itself. Manufacturers, merchants, and political societies filled the void, and the resulting "Conder tokens" became an unlikely vehicle for radical opinion at a moment when the government was prosecuting men for seditious libel.
The Tooke connection places this squarely in London reform circles. John Horne Tooke, tried for treason in 1794 and acquitted, was one of the most prominent radical voices of the decade.