1 Farthing Trade and Navigation

Nova Scotia's early 19th-century copper tokens were largely a private affair, with merchants and trading houses filling the chronic small-change vacuum left by an indifferent colonial administration. This piece was issued under trade token authority rather than any Crown mandate — a pragmatic response to the near-total absence of regal copper in circulation across the Maritime colonies following the Napoleonic Wars, which had disrupted transatlantic shipping and with it any reliable supply of British halfpence.

Breton 964 is among the more frequently encountered of the Nova Scotia series, suggesting wide commercial distribution in Halifax and surrounding ports.