Victoria - Half Farthing, Diamond Jubilee Model Token

Not a circulating coin and never intended as one. This 1897 piece is a trade model token produced by a die-sinker or medallist — almost certainly for presentation to the Royal Mint or a commercial client — during the flurry of jubilee-related proposals that preceded Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. The Mint received dozens of unsolicited and solicited model submissions that year, most of which went nowhere. W&E 3865A1 places this firmly in Withers & Edwards' cataloguing of pattern and model pieces, a classification that itself tells you more about its origin than any physical detail.