This was called a halfpenny, but nowadays you would need 5 of them to make one pence! It was made over 200 years ago when there were not enough coins in general circulation and it could only be spent in Gatehouse-of-Fleet.

• Gatehouse halfpenny token
• 1793
• Gatehouse-of-Fleet, Kirkcudbrightshire
• This was the only trade token issued in Galloway; used when small change was in short supply. The reverse depicts Scott's Cotton Mill in Gatehouse.

This is a token halfpenny issued in 1793 by Thomas Scott and Company, of Belfast and Bangor. One side shows the company's cotton mill at the head of Ann Street, Gatehouse-of-Fleet. The other side shows the Griffin crest and motto of the Murray family, the local landowners who were responsible for the development of the town and its industries.

At the end of the 18th century, small coinage was in such short supply across Britain that town and city councils and manufacturers issued their own token coinage. The Gatehouse Halfpenny was the only trade token issued in Kirkcudbrightshire, although tokens from elsewhere might have been in circulation.

In 1793 the cotton spinning industry in Gatehouse-of-Fleet was at its height, with four cotton mills, including Scott's Mill, in operation. Competition from mills in North West England and central Scotland eventually led to the decline and demise of the industry by the mid 19th century.

In the collection of The Stewartry Museum, Kirkcudbright.