GREAT BRITAIN Middlesex 1/2 Penny Conder Token / Hangman Gibbet Gallows Paine

Description

102050 | GREAT BRITAIN. Middlesex.
Thomas Spence's "End of Pain" Copper Halfpenny Token.
Issued circa 1793 (30mm, 6.84 g, 12h). END OF PAIN, man hanging right from gibbet; church in background to right / Open book, with two pages inscribed "THE / WRONGS / OF / MAN" and "JANy / 21 / 1793."
Edge
: Engrailed. D&H 833. Fine. Dark brown surfaces. An ever-popular "hangman" type.
Thomas Paine, a devout anti-monarchist, was famous (or infamous) on both sides of the Atlantic, with his 1791 publication
The Rights of Man
being hailed in America (England's former colony) and assailed back in his native country. Here, his contributions to political discourse are satirized, with a figure intended to be that of Paine himself hanging from a gibbet and with the punning phrase, the "end of pain," surrounding (
Paine would adopt America as his homeland so, in this sense, England was free from him [Paine], and thus, a "pain."
) Meanwhile, the date on the reverse refers to the execution date of King Louis XVI of France—an act by those "wild" with desires of freedom and democratic fervor against a fellow monarchic realm. Those in favor of the monarchy, be it English or French, undoubtedly viewed Paine's writings as not the rights of man, but rather the "wrongs."
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