Ship Halfpenny

About This Coin

Attributed to the Washington Pieces series despite its uncertain connection to the first president, the Ship Halfpenny features a sailing vessel on one side and is believed to have been produced in Anglesey, Wales, a major center of copper token production during the late 18th century. Weighing 9 grams with a 29 mm diameter, these pieces reflect the extensive network of British copper token manufacturers who produced coins for both domestic and colonial markets during the period when official Royal Mint copper coinage was inadequate for commerce. The ship design connects these tokens to the maritime commerce that linked Britain and its former colonies, while the Washington association — based on design similarities and circulation patterns rather than explicit inscriptions — places them within the broader collecting framework of Washington-related pieces from the 1783-1800 period. The Anglesey attribution suggests production at the Parys Mine Company's facilities or a related manufacturer on the island, which was the center of the world's copper mining industry during the 1780s and 1790s and home to numerous token-producing operations. Within the Washington Pieces (1783-1800) series, the Ship Halfpenny illustrates the difficulty of definitively attributing late 18th-century copper tokens to specific issuers, as the commercial nature of the copper token industry meant that dies and designs were freely adapted, copied, and combined across multiple minting operations.