Halsall, Col. Charles Mordaunt (mill owner) Penny, arms of the Earls of Peterborough, rev. value, edge
engrailed, 34mm/17.12gm. (DH 1). About Extremely Fine, even patination. Uncommon.
Ex. Baldwins Basement Feb. 2019.
Col Charles Lewis Mordaunt (c.1729-1808), ex Guards, JP in 1763, acquired the Mohun estate at Halsall, near
Ormskirk, in 1758. A few years later he had built a large cotton spinning mill there and by 1782 was employing
some 160 women and children. In around December 1783, Mordaunt's superintendent, John Moon, contacted
Boulton's mint in Birmingham, with a view to having tokens made for his workers to use; they were probably
in use around 1784/85 and if this were so, they would therefore pre-date the large Anglesey series which are
generally recognised to be the first 18th. c. tokens. However, local documentation suggests that they were no longer in circulation in 1791. Today, the mill is no longer in existence and Halsall Hall is divided up into flats.