In reply to MM0FMF:
Farthings were phased out just before the world benefited from my
arrival!How common was there usage in the 50’s? I’d assume they weren’t used
much anyway or the Govt. wouldn’t have stopped them.
The last farthings were minted in 1956. (There were only four years of farthings in Queen Elizabeth’s reign: 1953, 1954, 1955 and 1956.) All 1952 farthings bear the image of George VI, even though he died in February of that year. Farthings were finally demonetized at the end of 1960.
I clearly remember spending farthings as a schoolboy during the early 1950s. You could buy one or two sweets or a piece of chewing gum for a farthing, and a slate pencil for three-farthings.
I have quite a large collection of farthings, including an example of every farthing minted between 1860 and 1956, with the exception of 1863 and 1876.
73,
Walt (G3NYY)