This listing is for the photographed 1794 Lancaster-Lancashire Halfpenny Token. This is for the actual token pictured. Amazing piece of history. More information on this token below. An incredible specimen and a high grade. Mint luster and original color are still present; with few blemishes or distracting contact marks, this is a rare gem.
Composition: Copper
Weight: 10.2 g
Diameter: 29 mm
Thickness: 2 mm
The Lancashire Halfpenny is significant because it was the first large-scale use of the broad rim with incuse legends, followed immediately by the forty-eighth and ninety-sixth rupee coins struck for Madras in December 1794.
Eccleston was an eccentric coin and medal collector who lived in Queen Street, Lancaster. He struck a large medallion featuring George Washington and presented it to the American Government and the Emperor of Russia along with other heads of state. He made and lost a fortune and his last act was to write a letter from the grave after his death.
Conder tokens, also known as 18th-century provincial tokens, were a form of privately minted token coinage struck and used during the later part of the 18th century and the early part of the 19th century in England, Anglesey and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.
The driving force behind the need for token coinage was the shortage of small denomination coins for everyday transactions. However, the demand was fueled by other factors such as the Industrial Revolution, population growth, and the preponderance of counterfeit circulating coins. Because the government made little effort to ameliorate this shortage, private business owners and merchants took matters into their own hands, and the first tokens of this type were issued in 1787 to pay workers at the Mine Company. By 1795, millions of tokens of a few thousand varying designs had been struck and were in common use throughout Great Britain.
Lettering:
THE LANCASHIRE HALFPENNY
AGRICULT. MANUFACT. & COMMERCE
1794