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when the Parys or Anglesea Copper Mine’s Company, in 1787, 
put into circulation some 300 tons of copper pence and halfpence, 
with “full public approval,” the trader’s coinage came again into 
vogue, and the period of the 18th Century tokens began, the 
example of the Pary’s Company being quickly followed by other 
companies and private traders. 
In the Gentleman’s Magazine, at this time, a writer signing as 
“Civis” (Thomas Wright of Dundee), thus wrote of the traders’ 
coinage : “ Excepting the Coins of the Romans, there has nothing 
occurred parallel to these, within so short a period, since the 
era’s of the independent States of Greece, when almost every 
city had its distinct coinage,” and this praise was well deserved. 
Foremost as makers of tokens were the manufacturers of 
Birmingham, their town had long been a centre of the button- 
making industry (fashion in the 18th Century called for most 
elaborate buttons), but the demand was waning, and having in 
their employ die-sinkers (or as then known die-engravers) of the 
highest talent, they utilised their machinery and staffs to place 
upon the market tokens which were eagerly ordered by the traders 
of the country for every day use. 
Of the Birmingham manufacturers, Peter Kempson struck most 
largely—closely followed by W. Lutwyche (specimens of their 
private tokens shown), and most of the Bath issues were struck 
by them. Boulton and Watt, the famous firm at Soho, 
Birminghan, also made large quantities, and from 1787 to 1797 
many thousand tons of copper were used in the production of 
pence, halfpence and farthing tokens. 
The immediate popularity of the tokens was unquestionable, 
and they were freely accepted in every part of the United 
Kingdom as a regular medium of exchange, being redeemable at 
their face value in Coin of the Realm at the business places of 
their issuers. For want of a better term, what may be called 
clearing-houses must have existed as a matter of convenience 
between the various traders, as many of the tokens, in addition to 
