1/2 Penny Warwickshire - Birmingham / Johnson

This piece belongs to the wave of provincial coppers struck during Britain's "token mania" of the 1780s–90s, a direct consequence of the Royal Mint's near-total failure to produce adequate regal copper coinage for decades. Birmingham, as the industrial heart of England's metal trades, became the epicenter of private token production — Matthew Boulton's Soho Mint being only the most famous operation among many. Johnson's issue circulated among workers and tradesmen in a city where small change was so scarce that wages were sometimes paid in truck or in tokens redeemable only at company shops.

The DH#71a and Atkins#41a varieties indicate a die variant documented by both Dalton & Hamer and Atkins, suggesting more than one working die was employed — not unusual for a token with genuine commercial demand behind it.