Great Britain - 1792

½ Penny Token

(D & H 38 - Norfolk, Norwich)
Obverse - Great Britain - 1792 Reverse - Great Britain - 1792
Obverse - Arms of the City of Norwich. (Gules, a castle triple- towered argent, in base a lion passant gardant or [apparently proper on the token]), with the date "1792" outside the shield.
Reverse - Side view of a weaver at work in a box loom, with a filling wheel at the right.
Edge:- JOHN HARVEY OF NORWICH .xxxx.
Diesinker, Wyon; manufacturer, Kempson. One ton struck. The design and execution is bold and good. Common. There are four variants of the reverse die coupled with an obverse in which the tincture of the field in the arms is given as argent. D&H 38-42.
 
Comments. John Harvey appears to have been the Mayor of Norwich in the year of the striking of the token, and was also a partner in the firm of Harvey and Hudson, bankers, of Norwich. He was the commanding officer of the Norwich Volunteer Cavalry Corps, and his portrait, painted by Opie, is in the collection on the walls of St. Andrew's Hall. Harvey had a splendid seat at Thorpe Lodge, near Norwich, and some years after the issue of the token, over two thousand weavers in the city subscribed to present a piece of plate to him to show their esteem. He seems to have been a " throwster" by trade.
 
Detail of reverse...
   When the city was governed by a Bailiff, the Seal only bore the device of a Castle with a watchman at the entrance. Edward III granted the Lion to the city, and a new Seal bearing this addition was cut; sometimes being used singly, and at others as a reverse to the old Seal, but when Norwich was incorporated the old Seals were destroyed and a new Seal was adopted with the Castle and Lion as an obverse.
Commercial Coins 1787-1804., pp. 136-137
 
D & H 38 - Man in a Loom
O: Shield of arms of the City of Norwich, the shield plain. The date 1792 around. 2 on a line with the lower loop-hole, a tuft about the middle of the lion's tail.
R: A man working in a loom. The wheel of the bobbin winder has eight spokes, the back support of the wheel appearing as a ninth.
E:
A. 39
IOHN HARVEY OF NORWICH . X X X X .
Note. - No. 38 was also struck on larger flans from polished dies, showing die flaws on the obv. and rev.