Great Britain 1673 half penny
This specimen was lot 24867 in Heritage sale 3015 (Long Beach, September 2011), where it sold for $488.75. The catalog description[1] noted,
"Charles II Halfpenny 1673, uncertified, About XF, clashed dies, not much actual wear but rather the dies were lightly impressed, a well-centered piece having beautiful natural copper color. At the end of the obverse legend, a pair of flaws in the soft copper, but these are to be expected and should not affect value (which curiously shows a big spread of £330 in VF to £1,200 in EF in the SCBC); this coin probably worth about £600 in the UK. Nice halfpennies of Charles II, like this one, are quite scarce. Halfpennies first came into use in this reign, arising from a need for a regal subsidiary coinage in copper. After the Restoration there was a glut in the economy of private tokens of various denominations, mainly of small value, whose very issuance was a crime but one that was not rigorously enforced simply because these pieces existed out of true need. One problem for the Royal Mint in contemplating the minting of farthings and halfpennies was the lack of a real supply of native copper ore. At last it was decided to purchase copper blanks from Sweden, of which this coin and many others were made (but relatively few have survived the ages). The mint at the Tower of London had a great difficulty in making these early copper coins, as can be seen by the light striking quality of the present example. A variety of patterns were considered and deliberated over. Farthings finally were released in the late summer of 1672 but the halfpennies were not ready until Christmas of that year. The first royal halfpennies were minted in the last three months of 1672 but their release was withheld, as noted. It was not until 1673 that halfpennies finally came into commercial circulation in quantity. Anyone who has been to London knows what a furious economy it has, and no doubt it was no different in 1673; as a consequence, these humble coins were used vigorously, passed constantly from hand to hand, dropped in the streets, and so on, and within a few years almost all the mintage was badly abused. Much of it was later melted to be made into other coins. Survivors like this coin, so choice, so utterly attractive as a mere piece of copper and yet distinct mementoes of their era, are unusually scarce today, and are superb values for the informed collector."
Recorded mintage: unknown but scarce but slightly more available than those of James II.
Specification: copper.
Catalog reference: S3393, KM 437.
- Lobel, Richard, Mark Davidson, Allan Hailstone and Eleni Calligas, Coincraft's Standard Catalogue of English and UK Coins, 1066 to Date, London: Coincraft, 1995.
- Cuhaj, George S., and Thomas Michael, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1601-1700, 6th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2014.
- Skingley, Philip, ed., Standard Catalogue of British Coins: Coins of England & the United Kingdom, 46th edition, London: Spink & Son, 2011.
- [1]Cristiano Bierrenbach and Warren Tucker, Heritage World Coin Auction 3015, Dallas, TX: Heritage Auction Galleries, 2011.
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