Token - 1/2 Penny Warwickshire - Stratford

Issued in the early 1790s when the Royal Mint had so thoroughly neglected copper coinage that genuine halfpennies were outnumbered in circulation by counterfeits — some estimates suggest counterfeit coppers accounted for over half of all small change in England by 1787. Provincial merchants and tradesmen responded by commissioning their own tokens from private diesinkers, flooding the country with what collectors now call the Conder series. The Stratford piece ties directly to the Shakespeare tourist trade already well established in the town following Garrick's 1769 Jubilee, which transformed Stratford into a pilgrimage destination and generated steady demand for locally-branded commercial currency.