Farthing 1831, Coin from United Kingdom - detailed information

The Farthing was a small circulating coin of the British pre-decimal Pound Sterling, equal to a quarter of a penny. Prices were never written in farthings though - something worth a farthing would be quoted as 1/4d ("d" being the abbreviation for "penny", from the Roman "denarius"). There were 20 shillings to a pound, 12 pence to a shilling and 4 farthings to a penny, so 960 of these coins made up £1.

In 1801 the parliaments of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland each passed an Act of Union, uniting the two kingdoms and creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Re-coinage followed in 1806; there was a short-lived farthing format with larger coins with concave surfaces struck by the Soho Mint but it was only issued for two years.

After 1807, no farthing coins were issued until 1821, when this smaller version with a new-look Britannia and traditional flat surfaces was introduced; these coins were struck by the Royal Mint. Between 1821 and 1826, the First Issue of King George IV had an ornate Britannia reverse designed by William Wyon, chief engraver of the Royal Mint, and a portrait of the monarch by Benedetto Pistrucci; this version was only issued on farhings, unlike the other designs which had parallel issues in the halfpenny and penny denominations too. The king did not find the portrait satisfactory though, so it was re-designed by William Wyon in 1825 for the other denominations, with the new portrait and a simplified Britannia reverse introduced on the farthings from 1826.

This latter design is the same as that of the one penny, half penny and half farthing coins minted in the same years; coins of the four denominations look identical - the difference is only in size. Typically for British coinage of the time, the denomination (or, indeed, the country of issue) is not spelled out on the coin.

All these farthings were minted in copper, but after 1860 the denomination changed to bronze with an even smaller size; all British copper coinage was demonetised after 31 December 1869.