1790 Kentucky Half Penny Token - I Fielding Edge

Coin Details

Description

Bearing the name "I FIELDING" impressed into its edge, this Kentucky Half Penny Token identifies its manufacturer — I. Fielding, a Birmingham-area minting firm active in the late 18th-century British token trade. Weighing 9.5 grams and measuring 29 mm in copper, the token is cataloged as Whitman 8615 and PCGS #626. Fielding's edge inscription places this among the named-manufacturer varieties in the Kentucky Half Penny series, alongside the W Parker, Lancaster, and Birmingham edge types, each documenting a specific production source within the competitive Birmingham minting industry. The obverse carries the standard Kentucky design — a hand presenting a scroll inscribed "OUR CAUSE IS JUST" surrounded by a star border — and the reverse features the fifteen-star pyramid. Scarce as a named-manufacturer variety, this piece belongs to the Post-1776 Private and Regional Issues (1778-1820) series. The Birmingham token industry of the 1790s operated as a decentralized network of private mints competing for contracts to produce tokens, medals, and trade pieces for domestic and overseas markets, and the edge inscriptions served dual purposes: advertising the manufacturer's capabilities to potential customers while also providing a form of quality control and attribution that distinguished one firm's output from another's. The survival of Fielding's name on these tokens contributes to the historical record of Anglo-American commercial numismatics.

Rarity Notes

Scarce. Named manufacturer variety.

Cross References

Whitman 8615