Pitt Tokens

About This Coin

Copper farthings and halfpennies dated 1766, celebrating William Pitt the Elder, the British statesman who championed the repeal of the Stamp Act. The obverse bears a bust of Pitt with his name, while the reverse shows a merchant ship under full sail — a symbol of the transatlantic trade that the Stamp Act had threatened to disrupt. These tokens expressed colonial gratitude toward Pitt and circulated in America during a period of intense political friction with Parliament. They exist in copper, tin, and silvered varieties, with the tin and silvered versions being considerably scarcer.