page_title: History of the British farthing
section_title: Twentieth century and abolition (1902–1956)
hierarchical_section_title: History of the British farthing / Twentieth century and abolition (1902–1956)
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of a farthing dated 1946, with George VI and Wren
context_page_description: The British farthing was a British coin worth a quarter of an old penny. It ceased to be struck after 1956 and was demonetised from 1 January 1961.
  The British farthing is a continuation of the English farthing, struck by English monarchs prior to the Act of Union 1707 which unified the crowns of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain. 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. The next farthings were the first struck by steam power, in 1799 by Matthew Boulton at his Soho Mint under licence. Boulton coined more in 1806, and the Royal Mint resumed production in 1821. The farthing was struck fairly regularly under George IV and William IV. By then it carried a scaled-down version of the penny's design, and would continue to mirror the penny and halfpenny until after 1936.
  Farthings were struck in most years of Queen Victoria's long reign.
context_section_description: The farthing of King Edward VII (1901–1910), Victoria's son and successor, was struck in every year from 1902 to 1910; it was still artificially darkened. Mintages ranged from 2.6 million (1910) to 8.9 million (1908) at a time when the penny's mintage never dropped below 12 million and rose to 47 million in 1907. A total of £1,021,013 in pennies were struck bearing Edward's portrait, and £222,790 in halfpennies, but only £45,429 in farthings. But for the statement of the coin's value, the designs on the penny, halfpenny and farthing are effectively identical as De Saulles used a Janvier reducing lathe to convert models to dies. The new obverse was his work, showing the king's right-facing bust, with the inscription EDWARDVS VII DEI GRA BRITT OMN REX FID DEF IND IMP.
  The farthings of Edward's son and successor, King George V, resulted in a new left-facing portrait by Sir Bertram Mackennal and the continuation of the Britannia design. Farthings bearing King George's portrait were produced every year of his reign but 1910 and 1936. Other than substituting GEORGIVS V (George V) for EDWARDVS VII, no change was made to the inscription. In 1917, the Mint ceased to darken farthings as the half sovereign was no longer being minted. In common with the penny and halfpenny, the King's head was made slightly smaller in 1926. The depiction of Britannia was also slightly adjusted in that year. A total of £5,710,748 in pennies, £1,039,704 in halfpennies and £222,643 in farthings were struck for the reign.
  The Edward VIII farthing is a pattern which was awaiting royal approval at the time of the abdication in December 1936. There was a movement afoot for more modern coinage designs; the Irish Free State had in 1927 adopted a series of coins depicting animals and some of the colonies had redesigned their coinages. King Edward was also interested in a move away from the heraldry that marked British coinage, showing foreign coins on his watch chain to the Deputy Master of the Mint, Robert Johnson, and asking for more like those. King Edward eventually gave in on the question, fearing that such designs would be unacceptable to the British people, but non-heraldic themes for the halfpenny (a sailing ship) and farthing survived. The selected design for the farthing, a wren, placed the smallest British bird on the British coin smallest in value. In an attempt to break the deadlock between King and Mint, artist Wilson Parker had prepared a series of coinage designs based on what were loosely deemed royal animals: eagle, dove, stag, sturgeon, swan and wren, which though liked by the Advisory Committee (including a young Kenneth Clark) did not receive their endorsement due to the committee's preference for heraldry. Another reason for the change was that the Britannia design, reduced from a model, was difficult to appreciate given the coin's small size. The obverse was designed by Humphrey Paget. King Edward got his way on one matter; his portrait faced left on the patterns, whereas by tradition a monarch faces in the opposite direction from the last reign, and George V had faced left. Edward insisted as he considered his left profile his better side. The only change to the inscription was the substitution of EDWARDVS VIII (Edward VIII) for GEORGIVS V.
  The wren design was approved for the coinage of Edward's brother and successor, King George VI (1936–1952); it would stay on the coin for its remaining twenty years. Paget redesigned his obverse to include the new king's left-facing bust, and the wording was adjusted to include GEORGIVS VI. The coin was struck each year from 1937. In 1949, following the independence of India, IND IMP was removed from the obverse. The accession of Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 brought a new portrait to the farthing the following year, designed by Mary Gillick. The obverse inscription was ELIZABETH II DEI GRA BRITT OMN REGINA F D in 1953, and ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA F D thereafter. This change was a recognition that some of the nations of the British Commonwealth were republics.
  In the years after the Second World
caption: 1946 King George VI wren farthing
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