The British farthing is a continuation of the English farthing, struck by English monarchs prior to the Act of Union 1707. The coin was struck intermittently under George I and George II, but by the reign of George III, counterfeits were so prevalent the Royal Mint ceased striking copper coinage after 1775. Farthings were the first struck by steam power, in 1799 by Matthew Boulton at his Soho Mint under licence.
About History of the British farthing in brief
The British farthing is a continuation of the English farthing, struck by English monarchs prior to the Act of Union 1707. Only pattern farthings were struck under Queen Anne as there was a glut of farthings from previous reigns. The coin was struck intermittently under George I and George II, but by the reign of George III, counterfeits were so prevalent the Royal Mint ceased striking copper coinage after 1775. Farthings were the first struck by steam power, in 1799 by Matthew Boulton at his Soho Mint under licence. The farthing was struck fairly regularly under George IV and William IV. It carried a scaled-down version of the penny’s design, and would continue to mirror the penny and halfpenny until after 1936. In 1937 it finally received its own reverse design, a wren. By the time the coin bore the portrait of Elizabeth II from 1953 to 1956, inflation had eroded its value. A fall in commercial demand also contributed to its demise. It ceased to be struck after 1956 and was demonetised from 1 January 1961. It was struck in most years of Queen Victoria’s long reign, and the coin continued to be issued in most of the first half of the 20th century. It features the right-facing head of King George and the inscription GEORGIVS REX on the obverse, and for the reverse: Britannia with the inscription BRITAINIA below the date in the Tower of London.
The coins were for sale at the Treasury’s premises at the Tower in London in packets of five and ten shillings; the Treasury refused to allocate funds for provincial funds for distribution of packets. The designs were by John Croker, possibly by Rudolph Ochs Sr, and struck in every year from 1717–1724–1717, when the contract ended, when Johann Johann Croker’s design for the new coin was engraved for the head of the reigning king, George II. It is said to bear the likeness of Queen Anne, and according to the numismatic writer Kerry Rodgers, \”it was at this point that the blending of the female personification of Britain with the image of the Queen takes firm hold. ’’ The farthings struck in 1717 were smaller and thicker than the 1714 coins, with a diameter of 20–21 millimetres, and they are known as ‘dump’ farthings. They are of the same weight and diameter as the 1719-1724 coins, at 22–23 millimetre, but are of a different weight. The Royal Mint planned to issue farthings in 1714, but this was thwarted by the death of theQueen that year. The 1714 farthing weighing 4. 8–5. 8 grams and of 21–22 millimeter diameter, is deemed a pattern. It contained about a farthing’s worth of copper, as Sir Isaac Newton was Master of the Mint, and he believed coins should contain their value in metal.
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This page is based on the article History of the British farthing published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 02, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
