1795 Dated Halfpenny

A generic provincial token. From a thematic standpoint, its design doesn't seem especially coherent.

On the obverse is depicted Sir Bevois (Bevis), a romantic hero associated with Southampton. The escutcheon on the reverse is ostensibly that of (the House of) Nassau, which may be a reference to King William III. How these two might be linked isn't apparent, at least not to me.

Its manufacture is attributed to Peter Kempson of Birmingham, a prolific maker of at first buttons, then provincial tokens, and later medals. He's believed to have on occasion profuced halfpenny tokens for which there was no prospect of their ever being redeemable but were nonetheless sold to unscrupulous parties who gave them out as change. With its plain edge, this would appear to be one of those issues.