Diam. 31 mm copper Conder halfpenny token. [Birmingham, England]: [Lutwyche], 1795. Atkins, Tradesmen's Tokens, p. 73, no. 29a; D&H, Middlesex 29.

Plain edge. Obverse featuring full standing portrait of Amelia Newsham with the perimeter legend: "Mrs. Newsham the White Negress." Reverse with legend: "To Be Had at the Curiosity House City Road / Near / Finsbury Square / London / 1795". 

A rare token featuring Amelia Lewsham (alt. Newsham, or Amelia Harlequin; ca. 1748 - after 1797), a Jamaican woman born with albinism. Enslaved and exhibited as the "White Negress," she was taken to London for exhibition and examination as a child. This portrait is possibly the first use of coinage to use race for marketing purposes other than slavery. Additionally, it is the first metal depiction of albinism in a person of African descent. 

Born into enslavement to Black parents, she was described as "fair as the fairest among the Europeans," though with features otherwise typical for West Africans. Her enslaver, Sir Simon Clarke 6th Baronet, was immediately intrigued and sent the 5-year-old Amelia to England in 1753 as a present to his son, Kingsmill Clarke. Amelia was then sold by Clarke to John Bennet (alt. Burnet), who kept a bird and beast shop off St. Martin’s Lane in London. She was also frequently subjected to examination by naturalists and medical scientists. 

Bennet toured her as a curiosity, making Amelia a sensation. Spectators could view her for 1 shilling, and she "had the Honour to be shewn to the Royal Family, and to the Royal Society" (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). On 17 April, 1766, she was baptized in St Lawrence’s, Exeter, Devon, under the name Amelia Harlequin. Believing her baptism made her free, she either fled or was released from John Bennet. She then began exhibiting herself and selling her likeness. 

Olaudah Equiano (ca 1745-1797), the freedman and noted abolitionist leader, wrote in 1777 that he "saw a remarkable circumstance…A white negro woman, that I had formerly seen in London and other parts, had married a white man, by whom she had three boys." 

This rare token dates to 1795, when she was evidently working at the House of Curiosities run by Thomas Hall at No. 10 City Road in London. 

An excellent example of a rare item.

References: 

James Atkins. The Tradesmen's Tokens of the Eighteenth Century. London: W.S. Lincoln & Son, 1892. 

Kathleen Charles. "Lewsham [Newsham], Amerlica (b. c. 1748, d. in or after 1798), white negress. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 2011. 

Isabelle Charmantier. "Black Lives in the Linnean Society Collections: Amelia Newsham." The Linnean Society of London, 19 October 2020. 

R. Dalton and S.H. Hamer. The Provincial Token-Coinage of the 18th Century. 1910. 

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The front image having one small indentation with some general softening of the figure from handling, a bit dirtied. The image is very well preserved. The rear image is, as usual, soft toward the center and upper left. This was apparently a production issue with the coin, as most extant examples have similar patterns of inconsistent textual depth.