Coins for collectors - Uncirculated British 1967 Halfpenny / Half Penny Coin / Great Britain

Product Information

The first of which were introduced by around 785 by the Anglo-Saxon King Offa of Mercia. The name Penny was derived from the German ‘pfennig’ and old English ‘pennige’. The old pre-decimal Penny, was two-hundred-and-fortieth of a pound, and was symbolised with a letter 'd'. This is derived from the Roman denarius coin. An old halfpenny, 1/2d, was therefore, 1/480th of a pound sterling. After 1971, the decimal halfpenny was two-hundredth of a pound, it is symbolised with 'p', as '1/2p'.

The pattern coin of Edward VIII and regular issue halfpennies of George VI and Elizabeth II feature a redesigned reverse displaying Sir Francis Drake's ship the Golden Hind. Consequently, The Royal Mint began to withdraw copper Pennies in 1861. They were replaced by smaller and lighter weight bronze coins in 1863. These were minted by James Watt & Co plus the Heaton Mint, both of Birmingham. 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. Halfpennies were produced in some quantity in Queen Elizabeth I's fifth and sixth coinage issues (1582–1600 and 1601–1602). Because of their small size, they did not have the queen's effigy or any legends on them, but instead had a portcullis on the obverse and a cross on the reverse. Sixth-issue coins also had a mintmark on the obverse: "1" for 1601 and "2" for 1602.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) To be sure, Golden Hind graces several British Halfpennies that could be considered scarce – notably several low-mintage proof issues of the mid-20th century. However, none of the circulating issues can be considered rare, though none are dated 1961, marking the latter years of the reverse’s run from 1937 through 1970. That’s certainly the case for the 1967 British Halfpenny. In fact, that last circulating issue saw the largest mintage of the coin’s run – 146,491,000 pieces, or nearly three examples for each of the 54.8 million individuals living in Great Britain in 1967.

Early Pennies were pure silver, exchangeable for and worth their weight in the precious metal. The Halfpence coins were, likewise, half the weight and also equal in value to their weight in the precious metal content.Weight 9.2–9.8grams, diameter 29 millimetres. Obverse shows a right-facing bust of the king, with the inscription GEORGIVS III D G REX date, reverse shows a slightly different left-facing seated Britannia holding a spray and spear, with the inscription BRITANNIA.