1/2 Penny Middlesex - Political and Social series / Tooke

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.