Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H-726
This specimen was lot 75771 in Stack's Bowers Collectors Choice sale (Costa Mesa, CA, September 2025), where it sold for $384. The catalog description[1] noted, "GREAT BRITAIN. Trade Tokens. Middlesex. Spence's Copper 1/2 Penny Token, 1795. PCGS MS-63 Brown. Obverse: A sailor seizing a landsman; Reverse: Two men boxing." Wikipedia comments,
"Impressment, colloquially "the press" or the "press gang", is the forced conscription of men into a military or naval force via intimidation and physical coercion, conducted by an organized group (hence "gang"). European navies of several nations used forced recruitment by various means. The large size of the British Royal Navy in the Age of Sail meant impressment was most commonly associated with Great Britain and Ireland. It was used by the Royal Navy in wartime, beginning in 1664 and during the 18th and early 19th centuries as a means of crewing warships....The Royal Navy impressed many merchant sailors, as well as some sailors from other, mostly European, nations."
The press gang was never formally abolished by the Royal Navy but was not used after 1815.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: copper.
Catalog reference: D&H-726.
- Conder, James. An arrangement of Provincial Coins, tokens, and medalets issued in Great Britain, Ireland, and the colonies, within the last twenty years, from the farthing to the penny size. Ipswich: G. Jermyn, 1798.
- Dalton, Richard, and Samuel H. Hamer. The Provincial Token Coinage of the 18th Century. 1910-1917. reprinted 2015 by Thomas Publications, Gettysburg, PA.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, September 2025 World Collectors Choice Online Auction, including Selections from the Richard Margolis Collection and Selections from the L.E. Bruun Collection, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2025.
Link to:
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H-286, Corresponding Society
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H-292, Coventry Street, filtering stone
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H-295, Davidson
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H-301, Eaton's Copper
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H-308, Guest's Patent Boots
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H-313, T. Hall
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H-314, Hall's
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H-315c, Jeffrey Dunstan
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H-389, Moore's Lace Manufactory
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H-396b, Newgate Prison
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H 447
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H-480, Skidmore's
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H-522a, Skidmore's
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H-720, Spence's
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H-729b, Spence's
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H-748, Spence's
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H-790b, Spence's, ODD FELLOWS
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H 904, Stinton's
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H-977, Princess Caroline of Wales
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H-985a, Duke of York
- Middlesex 1795 half penny token D&H-1018a Lutwyches "General Convenience"
- Middlesex (1795) half penny token D&H-1038g
- Middlesex 1795 farthing token D&H-1053, Denton's
- Middlesex 1795 farthing token D&H-1112, Thos. Spence
- Middlesex 1795 farthing token D&H-1117, Spence's
- Middlesex 1795 farthing token D&H-1118, Spence's
- Middlesex 1796 farthing token D&H-1123a, Skidmore's
- Coins and currency dated 1795