Royal copper coinagage was issued sporadically from 1672-1775, when it stopped altogether. Copper prices were rising and monarchs thought copper an unworthy metal to bear their image.

Counterfeit coins and tokens circulated freely but did not meet the need for copper coins to pay wages and make change as the Industrial Revolution accelerated.

In 1787, the Parys Mine Company in Anglesey Wales began using its own abundant copper supply to produce handsome full weight "Druid" tokens to pay their workers.

Other industrialists like John Wilkinson and Charles Roe followed suit by issuing their own tokens. Soon towns, merchants, political organizations and wealthy individuals were issuing penny, halfpenny and farthing tokens that illustrated the people, events and occupations of the Industrial Revolution. Demand for these tokens persisted until the Royal coinages of 1797 and 1799.

Sources:

• Dalton and Hamer: The Provincial Token Coinage of the Eighteenth Century 1996 Reprint by Davissons.

Contributed by:Michael Grogan

Links:

• Early British Tokens 
• The Conder Token Collector's Club