Great Britain 1806 half penny
The first specimen was lot 72342 in Stack's Bowers Collectors Choice Online Auction (Santa Ana, CA, May 2017), where it sold for $188. The catalog description[1] noted, "GREAT BRITAIN. 1/2 Penny, 1806. NGC MS-65 BN. Reverse: No berries. Good strike with glossy brown surfaces and quite attractive." This type of 1806-07 is the only issue of copper pennies between 1799 and 1825. Despite a desperate shortage of small change which permitted the issue of a profusion of counterfeits and private tokens, the mint made little effort to produce copper coins until the 1820's. This half penny was accompanied by a penny (KM 663) and farthing (KM 661). Many varieties of berries exist.
Recorded mintage: unknown but common.
Specification: 9.22 g, copper, 28.7 mm diameter.
Catalog reference: KM-662.
- Freeman, Michael J., The Bronze Coinage of Great Britain, Rev. Ed., London: Spink & Son, 2006.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- [1]Ponterio, Rick, et al., The May 2017 Collector's Choice Sale, Santa Ana, CA: Stack's Bowers LLC, 2017.
- Lobel, Richard, Mark Davidson, Allan Hailstone and Eleni Calligas, Coincraft's Standard Catalogue of English and UK Coins, 1066 to Date, London: Coincraft, 1995.
- Peck, C. Wilson, English Copper, Tin and Bronze Coins in the British Museum, 1558-1958, 2nd Ed., London: Oxford University Press, 1970.
- Skingley, Philip, ed., Standard Catalogue of British Coins: Coins of England & the United Kingdom, 46th edition, London: Spink & Son, 2011.
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