Token, copper, 28mm diameter. Montrose halfpenny, 1796. (DH Angus 28). Issuer James Bisset, 1796, ½d. Obverse View of the then new wooden bridge at Montrose: ‘Mare Ditat’. Reverse A woman seated at a spinning wheel: ‘Sure are the Rewards of Industry’. Notes Bisset was a flax spinner. The wooden bridge was eventually replaced by a suspension bridge. ‘Mare Ditat’ was taken from the town’s motto. Despite the introduction of machine spinning, the spinning wheel was still a common piece of domestic equipment and many people in Montrose were employed in textile making.