Great Britain - 1794

½ Penny Token

(D & H 4 - Essex, Braintree)
Obverse - Great Britain - 1794 Reverse - Great Britain - 1794
Obverse - Hope standing with dishevelled hair, her right hand upraised and her left resting on an anchor.
Legend: SUCCESS TO TRADE AND COMMERCE.
Reverse - Front elevation of a large house with two entrances. Legend: -BRAINTREE & BOCKING HALFPENCE.
In the exergue, MDCCXCIV
Edge:- PAYABLE AT W. GOLDSMITHS BRAINTREE ESSEX .XX.
Diesinker, Wyon; manufacturer, Kempson. Seventeen cwts. struck. Common.
There is a rare variant with the period close to the anchor (D&H 3).
 
Comments. Braintree is a market town forty miles from London and eleven from Chelmsford. Bocking, which was once a place of greater importance, is an adjoining village where baize and woollen goods were made.
   The Bishops of London formerly had a palace at Braintree.
Commercial Coins 1787-1804., pp. 35
 
D & H 4 - Braintree Halfpenny
O: As last.
R: Similar to last. Period midway between legend and anchor
E:
A. 4
PAYABLE AT W. GOLDSMITHS BRAINTREE ESSEX .XX.
 
The two authorities reverse the sides.