2 Quartos Richard Cattons

Gibraltar's copper shortage during the Napoleonic Wars forced the garrison to rely on privately issued token coinage, and Richard Catton — a local merchant — was among those who stepped in to fill the gap. The British military administration tacitly accepted these pieces in daily transactions rather than face the alternative of no small change at all.

Catton's tokens were authorized for use within the garrison by local ordinance, a pragmatic arrangement that collapsed once regular British copper reached the Rock in sufficient quantities.