c. 1795 ½ Penny Token, Pig's Meat, Great Britain.

[elverno]

c. 1795 ½ Penny Token, Pig's Meat, Great Britain.

29.25mm - Details - relatively common

 

Thomas Spence was a prolific producer of the most interesting (in my opinion) political tokens of the French Revolutionary period. His newspaper "Pig's Meat" reviled the King and his ministers and got Spence thrown in jail much more than once. He arguably was one of the first modern Utopian socialists (if that's possible).

[constanius]

Luckily british tokens were at their heyday in these turbulent, revolutionary & reactionary times and have immortalized some of the participants and incidents in metal for our continuing enjoyment & enlightenment. As a bonus, they are so cheap when compared to US tokens.

[Scottishmoney]

I particularly like the connection to Thomas Paine, a prolific writer and agitator during the American Revolution who later went back to England and then on to France to stir things up. His greatest success though was in the USA, where his "Common Sense" was written and published in 1776 and contributed to the cause for revolution against Great Britain.

 

Now Paine is commemorated on banknotes from Lewes, in England, he lived there for a few years before coming to America.