Great Britain - 1792

½ Penny Token

(D & H 144 - Warwickshire, Birmingham, Hickman's)
Obverse - Great Britain - 1792 Reverse - Great Britain - 1792
Obverse - Bust of eighteenth century gentleman with flowing hair tied behind with a ribbon.
Legend: IOHN HOWARD F.R.S.
Reverse - The cypher H H in script capitals, 1792 above it.
Legend: PROMISSORY. HALFPENNY. BIRMINGHAM.
Edge:- PAYABLE AT H. HICKMANS WAREHOUSE BIRMINGHAM.
Diesinker, Mainwaring; manufacturer, Mainwaring. Five cwts. struck. Common.
 
Comments. Henry Hickman was a wholesale and retail dealer in sheet, bar, and rod iron, at No. 3 Edgebaston Street, Birmingham.
Commercial Coins 1787-1804., pp. 196
 
D & H 144 - Hickman's
O: Bust to left. IOHN HOWARD F R S.
R: A cypher H H. BIRMINGHAM PROMISSORY HALFPENNY 1792.
E:
A. 92
PAYABLE AT H. HICKMANS WAREHOUSE BIRMINGHAM.
 
This piece is superficially D&H 145, a RRR conder according to D&H. I have chosen to identify it as the much more common D&H 144 for two reasons. The first is that the obverse has pitting only near the face and coat of the bust. Since the difference between the two is a second buttonhole that makes this piece suspect as having been altered. The second reason I went more conservative was what looks like the faint end of a second buttonhole below and to the right of the first (which shows as a horizontal line).