Token - 1 Farthing Middlesex

Middlesex tradesman tokens of the early 1800s emerged directly from the chronic shortage of regal copper coinage that had plagued everyday commerce since the 1780s. The Royal Mint's near-total neglect of small denomination production left merchants like Orchard to fill the gap at their own expense, commissioning private tokens that were legally tolerated until the Coinage Act of 1817 effectively killed the practice. Dalton & Hamer catalogued hundreds of these Middlesex issues, and DH#1063 sits among the later examples — by 1804, the token trade was already contracting as Matthew Boulton's Soho Mint had resumed supplying regal copper in quantity after 1797.