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1791 AE Halfpenny Token. Macclesfield, Cheshire.
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Obverse: CHARLES ROE ESTABLISHED THE COPPER WORKS 1758 • Bust of Charles Roe, facing right.
Reverse: MACCLESFIELD HALFPENNY. The Genius of industry, presented as a female figure, seated facing left, holding drill in her right hand and a six spoked cogwheel in her left hand by her side; in right field behind her is a mine capstan; in exergue, 1791.
Edge: Incuse legend “PAYABLE AT MACCLESFIELD LIVERPOOL OR CONGLETON • X •”.
Diameter 30mm | Die Axis 6.
Dalton & Hamer: 55
This token was issued by Charles Roe a leading Cheshire industrialist. The design for the token is attributed to John Gregory Hancock. Hancock was probably also responsible for the minting of these tokens, although the manufacture of them can be traced back to a separate contract placed with Matthew Boulton at his Soho Works in Birmingham.
Charles Roe was born in 1715 and died in 1781, he was the founder of Roe and Company, (also known as the Macclesfield Copper Company) which owned extensive works for smelting and making copper on land to the east of Macclesfield. Roe was a leading industrialist in the mid 18th Century, and much of his wealth and business empire was based on his various mining and metallurgical interests, he became a partner in several copper mines, and the famous Anglesey Mines in Wales were first worked under his direction.
Charles Roe was also a well known silk manufacturer and mill owner in his home county of Cheshire and there still exists today a memorial tablet to him in Christ Church, Macclesfield, which carries a lengthy inscription to his various lifetime achievements in the silk and metal trades.
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