British Bank Tokens

I am not familiar with bank tokens, I am looking for an explanation.
Why were they issued, were they legal tender, and how common were they?

I have a Dundee half-penny 1795
Norfolk and Norwich half penny 1792
Macclesfield half penny 1792
Province of Nova Scotia half penny 1832
Bank of Upper Canada penny 1857

 

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I am not too familiar with bank tokens either.

However, I believe your 3 first tokens are merchant tokens, also called Conder tokens.

Don't have any good links at hand, but there is a lot of material online on Conder tokens, and quite a few knowledgable collectors of them here.

The 2 last tokens are Canadian bank tokens, I guess.

In general, tokens like these were issued during a period of money shortage, and served as legal tender during this period.

I believe Conder tokens were issued, partly because the English mint wouldn't lower themself to minting base metal coins.
(The 1797 cartwheel penny was a turning point for that.)
You can imagine they were a common sight at that time, as most merchants needed change in form of halfpennies and farthings.

 

Irish bank token

I also have an 18 mm silver? bank token that I am curious about,

"Bank Token Five Pence Irish 1805"
obverse GEORGIUS III DEI GRATIA

 

They were mainly issued due to a seriouse lack of small change in the British economy very little had been produced in the past 40 or so years In 1787 Thomas Williams began making his own and he had one rather big advantage LOL he owned a mountain of copper Parys mining company of Angalsey Have a look at my avatar

 

I discovered one of those 1797 Cartwheel two-pennies in Grandma's box, that sucker is heavy. Unfortunately it is not in good condition.

Thanks for the info. Well I learned something new today. I also just read on another site
During the period 1787 to 1797, and again between 1811 and 1812, many private trade tokens were manufactured to fill the gap left by the absence of official small change.
A discussion of these pieces is beyond the scope of this web site, but very worn tokens are so common that they have little value.

 

Now that is not quite true if you have a rare token that is worn then it will have value

 

I will totally agree with De Orc! Give me a well worn Dr. Samuel Johnson Conder Token with an edge inscription "PAYABLE AT HENRY BIGG'S MOORE STREET". That little boogher would be worth thousands, since only a handful of specimens are known! :goofer:

Ribbit