Long story short. In 18th century Britain there was a chronic shortage of small denomination coinage due to excessive counterfeiting and low production of non-precious coins by the Royal Mint. Demand was booming due to industrialisation, the need to pay workers and there being more consumer goods around for people to buy.

Counterfeit coinage boomed, perhaps 2/3 of all low value coins were forgeries, A Welsh industrialist – Thomas Williams of Llanidan, “the Copper King” – proposed an anti-counterfeiting edge to the coins to the Royal Mint so long as they used his copper, but they declined.

The Royal Mint’s response was to simply stop producing copper coins, and for 48 years from 1773-1821, they struck no copper coins. Clearly a modern industrial country could not function this way, so industry – led by Williams – resorted to simply producing their own. Such coins, or tokens, could be traded freely at the stamped value, and presented to some wealthy sponsoring merchant, industrialist or local worthy for exchange as required.

These coins quickly caught on. They were of a much higher quality than official coinage and were issued by prominent businessmen so the provenance could be trusted. The value of the copper content also made them less susceptible to being speculated on than promissory notes or other cheap tokens. One of the biggest manufacturers of such coins was the industrialist Matthew Boulton (James “Condensing Steam Engine” Watt’s business partner).

Boulton had the machinery, the capital, the interests in copper mines, a personal stock of copper bought in a slump in the market and the contacts and established the Soho Mint in the West Midlands in 1788 and went into volume minting of quality coins. His machines were of his own patented design and were driven by steam engines. Each could mint 70 to 85 coins per minute.

Such was a demand for small coinage, these tokens quickly spread and were issued on a town-by-town, county-by-county basis, so they are often called “Provincial Tokens”. The name “Conder Token” comes from James Conder, an issuer of such coins who soon became an avid collector and cataloguer of them.

In 1797, the Government finally came to its senses about the financial crisis and issued Boulton a contract to mint official copper coinage and provincial tokens began to wane. Production ceasing by 1802, with a brief return in 1811-12 before finally being forbidden in 1817.

Many Scottish municipalities joined in issuing local coinage during this time. The table shows the number of different coins known for each area of the country. The financial capital in the Lothians and the industrial capital in Lanarkshire were unsurprisingly the most prolific, alongside the trade centre in Dundee (Angus).

County	Tokens	County	Tokens
Aberdeenshire	1	Kirkcudbrightshire	1
Angus	43	Lanarkshire	54
Argyle	5	Linlithgowshire	5
Ayrshire	9	Lothian	150
Dumfriesshire	1	Perthshire	11
Fife	16	Renfrewshire	6
Haddingtonshire	4	Roxburghshire	1
Invernesshire	5	Selkirkshire	1
Kinrosshire	1	Non-regional	8

And so this is how we come to there being such a thing as a Leith Ha’penny. This one, of 1797, shows a sailing ship on one side – an obvious Leith connection – and Britannia on the rear.

And the John White (a merchant of the Kirkgate) Leith ha’penny, wishing “Success to the Port” with another nautical scene, showing a ship entering the Port of Leith, and featuring the stuff of profitable trade on the back; gin and tea.

So of course if Leith has Ha’pennies, of course Edinburgh has to have them to! Notice that Britannia is a gain a common theme, as are recognisable civic buildings. “WRIGHT DES” on the front refers to James Wright, an engraver from Dundee who designed many Conder tokens, was a correspondent of Conder, and was both a proponent of them and a collector.

And another version, earlier from 1790, featuring the municipal coat of arms and motto, thistles, and St. Andrew himself. Note the anchor on the rear, a symbol of both Edinburgh’s merchant prosperity and also its dominance over its port at Leith. These tokens were produced by Messrs. Hutchinson of Creech’s Land, an important old building at the west end of the Luckenbooths where Alan Ramsay had his book shop and had opened Scotland’s first circulating library in 1725.

The Campbell’s Snuff of Edinburgh Ha’penny, the Turk’s Head being a connection to smoking. if you squint you can make out the name “James” below the head, for the engraver Charles James. Campbell’s shop was apparently the business of Euphame Campbell, which makes this doubly interesting as it must have been very rare to have a token in the name of a woman.

The Archibald, Seedsman of Edinburgh Ha’penny. The coin features an Archibald family coat of arms on the front and an advert for his wares on the back. This Archibald was Joseph Archibald of West Nicolson Street, a burgess of the city, who kept a shop at 88 Chapel Street and a nursery at Lauriston, where a street, Archibald Place, is named for him.

Harrison of St. Leonards, Ha’penny. Henry Harrison was a bucklemaker on St. Leonard’s Hill. Harrison’s cypher is on the reverse, with the anchor of trade on the front.

Anderson, Leslie & Company Ha’penny from 1797, featuring the then new college building of the University on South Bridge. Again James Wright was the engraver. The wording around the edge of the reverse translates as “Nor let even the poor and infertile grounds lie neglected” and features a gardener. Not surprisingly given this design and wording, Anderson, Leslie & Company were also Seedsmen, based opposite the Mercat Cross in the Old Town.

The Scran archive has a wide range of photos of other Scottish Conder tokens (If you have a library card issued by most Scottish councils, you can log in using your library card number to get more meta content and bigger pictures) – click here.

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