Phone: There was a great shortage of government issued small change in George III's reign, the situation was so bad that a great many merchants and mining companies issued their own Copper Tokens. In 1797 Matthew Boulton was authorised by the government to strike Copper Pennies and Twopences at his Soho Mint in Birmingham. The Twopence coins contained two pence worth of Copper and weighed two ounces, they had a diameter of 41 millimetres.
The large size of the coins combined with the thick rim where the inscription was incuse i.e. punched into the metal, led to the coins being nicknamed Cartwheels. The coins were minted for several years but all were dated 1797.
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