Great Britain experienced a shortage of small change coins during the 18th and 19th centuries when the Royal Mint chose to concentrate on production of higher denomination gold and silver coins. Likewise, during the Civil War the United States experienced a critical shortage of small change coins, although much of this was due to hoarding. In both situations merchants took matters into their own hands and began making tradesman’s tokens that were the right diameter, weight, and metal content as was the real thing, but with iconography sufficiently different to avoid facing the hangman’s noose for counterfeiting.

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