In a 1967 episode of the television series The Avengers, entitled "You Have Just Been Murdered", John Steed assembles 999,999 halfpennies before being made a 'halfpenny millionaire' courtesy of Mrs Peel. The sequence also shows a close up of a 1947 halfpenny reverse. Ha’porth: British English i.e. ' halfpenny-worth' or ' halfpennyworth' pronounced / ˈ h eɪ p ə θ/. [6] [7] Weight 12.0–13.1grams, diameter 30–31 millimetres. Obverse shows a right-facing bust of the king, with the inscription GEORGIVS III DEI GRATIA REX, reverse shows a redesigned left-facing seated Britannia holding a spray and spear, with the inscription BRITANNIA 1799.

Halfpenny and Farthing". Royal Mint Museum. Archived from the original on 6 November 2018 . Retrieved 10 May 2014. Halfpennies of the second reign of Edward IV (1471–1483) are much like those of the first reign (only a few months earlier) but they were also produced at Durham ( CIVITAS DERAM). Values in the table above are expressed in GBP. They are based on evaluations by Numista users and sales realized on Internet platforms. They serve as an indication only; they are not intended to be relied upon for buying, selling or exchanging. Numista does not buy or sell coins or banknotes.This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. The farthing, pennies, sixpence… Pre-decimal British coinage will always have a place in numismatic lore. And while the last coins of the traditional British monetary system were demonetized over the late 20th century and officially replaced in 1971 with a decimal-based system contingent on a pound divided by 100 pence, many older Britons and a good deal of numismatists can still readily recite the British monetary conversion chart of yesteryear by heart: four farthings to a penny, 12 pence to a shilling, 20 shillings to a pound.

King Richard III's (1483–1485) short reign only produced halfpennies from the London mint. The obverse inscription reads RICARD DI GRA REX, which distinguishes the coins from those of Richard II. Golden Hind — three-masted ship, galleon captained by Francis Drake in his circumnavigation of the world (1577-1580). There are currently no known major 1967 doubled die pennies that have such drastic doubling — but there are still some really cool (and collectible!) 1967 doubled die pennies out there which show minor doubling. Most of these are rather obscure doubling errors that can be seen in the lettering and date.The British pre-decimal halfpenny, (pronounced / ˈ h eɪ p ən i/), once abbreviated ob. (from the Latin 'obulus'), [1] was a denomination of sterling coinage worth 1 / 480 of one pound, 1 / 24 of one shilling, or 1 / 2 of one penny. Originally the halfpenny was minted in copper, but after 1860 it was minted in bronze. In the run-up to decimalisation, it ceased to be legal tender from 31 July 1969 (although halfpennies dated 1970 were minted as part of a final pre-decimal commemorative set). [2] The halfpenny featured two different designs on its reverse during its years in circulation. From 1672 until 1936 the image of Britannia appeared on the reverse, and from 1937 onwards the image of the Golden Hind appeared. [3] Like all British coinage, it bore the portrait of the monarch on the obverse. [4] The mintage for this version was much smaller at just 750,000 which means it is more valuable than the 1967 version. Final Thoughts The king's name appears in the obverse inscription, usually EDW, EDWA, or EDWR R ANGL DNS HYB, or RICARD or HENRI respectively for the issues of Kings Richard II (1377–1399) and Henry IV (1399–1413).

King George II's (1727–1760) halfpennies were the most prolific issue yet, but to them must be added a huge range of counterfeits (and pieces similar to counterfeits but with markedly different legends from the real coins, so that the manufacturers could avoid accusations of counterfeiting). Many genuine coins were melted down and underweight fabrications produced from the molten metal. It is difficult for people who use a modern regulated currency to appreciate the extent to which counterfeiting had debased the currency – for long periods of time, counterfeits outnumbered genuine coins. Halfpennies were produced in all years between 1729 and 1754, with the exception of 1741. They weighed 9.7–10.3grams and had a diameter of 28–30 millimetres. The obverse showed the left-facing head of King George and the inscription GEORGIVS II REX on the obverse, and Britannia with the inscription BRITANNIA and the date in the exergue beneath Britannia. There’s a reason your old 1967 pennies are valuable — and it’s not just because of their age or rarity.

The third (1544–1547) and posthumous (1547–1551) coinage halfpennies have a more lifelike bust, but were produced in debased silver (only 1/3 silver and 2/3 copper) and therefore are usually in a very poor condition.

Of all the errors and varieties we’re going to cover here, the one that most folks are probably hoping to find is the so-called doubled die — often incorrectly known as a “double die” to some people. It’s because these old pennies contain a bronze composition made of 95% copper, 5% zinc. And since copper has gone up in value so much in recent years, the amount of copper in a 1967 penny is now worth about twice the coin’s face value — or a total of about 2 cents. a b "University College London Dept. of Psychology and Language Sciences, Faculty of Brain Sciences". Archived from the original on 9 November 2012. Professor Emeritus John Christopher Wells' C.V. (via Internet Archive) Why does the word Halfpennyworth only have One Syllable?: It doesn't. Historically it was pronounced with Two". Gareth Roberts, Linguistics Professor, PhD, U. of Edinburgh (2010) . Retrieved 15 May 2017. Halfpenny". Oxford English Dictionary (Onlineed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)

Halfpennies of a similar design to his brother's were produced in each year of the reign of King George VI. The inscription on the obverse reads GEORGIVS VI D G BR OMN REX F D IND IMP until 1948, then GEORGIVS VI D G BR OMN REX FIDEI DEF. There are reported to be slight differences in the reverse – the size and positioning of the ship, the inscription HALF PENNY and the date under the ship – from year to year, but numismatists differ in opinion as to whether this is significant enough to count as a design variation each year, or just one design for the whole reign. Before Decimal Day in 1971, sterling used the Carolingian monetary system, under which the largest unit was a pound divided into 20 shillings, each of 12 pence. Each penny was further divided into 4 farthings, thus a pound contained 480 halfpennies and a shilling contained 24 halfpennies. During Victoria's reign, the halfpenny was first issued with the so-called 'bun head', or 'draped bust' of Queen Victoria on the obverse. The inscription around the bust read VICTORIA D G BRITT REG F D. This was replaced in 1895 by the 'old head', or 'veiled bust'. The inscription on these coins read VICTORIA DEI GRA BRITT REGINA FID DEF IND IMP.