Yet, for a period of more than a decade in modern history, the farthing was not Great Britain’s smallest denomination. Rather, it was the halfpenny, or so was the case when the last farthing rolled off the presses at the Royal Mint in 1956, to be demonetized New Year’s Day in 1961. This left the halfpenny, a coin often linguistically slurred to “ha’penny,” to be the nation’s smallest-denomination coin in production until 1967 as the pre-decimal era neared its close in Great Britain. The farthing, pennies, sixpence… Pre-decimal British coinage will always have a place in numismatic lore. And while the last coins of the traditional British monetary system were demonetized over the late 20th century and officially replaced in 1971 with a decimal-based system contingent on a pound divided by 100 pence, many older Britons and a good deal of numismatists can still readily recite the British monetary conversion chart of yesteryear by heart: four farthings to a penny, 12 pence to a shilling, 20 shillings to a pound. The pattern coin of Edward VIII and regular issue halfpennies of George VI and Elizabeth II feature a redesigned reverse displaying Sir Francis Drake's ship the Golden Hind. The copper halfpenny weighed between 10.0 and 12.0grams and had a diameter of 28–31 millimetres. The inscription on the obverse, around the king's head, reads CAROLVS A CAROLO– Charles, son of Charles – while the reverse shows BRITAN NIA around the left facing seated Britannia, holding a spray and trident, with the date beneath Britannia. Coins were produced dated 1672, 1673, and 1675.

During the short second reign of Henry VI (1470–1471), halfpennies were produced at London and Bristol. The obverse inscription was changed to read HENRIC DI GRA REX. a b "University College London Dept. of Psychology and Language Sciences, Faculty of Brain Sciences". Archived from the original on 9 November 2012. Professor Emeritus John Christopher Wells' C.V. (via Internet Archive) In a 1967 episode of the television series The Avengers, entitled "You Have Just Been Murdered", John Steed assembles 999,999 halfpennies before being made a 'halfpenny millionaire' courtesy of Mrs Peel. The sequence also shows a close up of a 1947 halfpenny reverse.Michael, Thomas and Cuhaj, George S. Collecting World Coins: Circulating Issues 1901 – Present. Krause Publications, 2001. Talking Heads by Alan Bennett No. 3 "A lady of Letters" (Runtime 33.24)". circa 22 min. & 33. sec. in. As mentioned earlier, the U.S. Mint produced a special kind of collectible coin product in 1967 known as the Special Mint Set (SMS).

The halfpennies of the first reign of King Edward IV (1461–1470) are divided into the heavy coinage up to 1464, which was only minted in London, and the light coinage from 1464, produced at London, Bristol (now VILLA BRISTOW), Canterbury ( CIVITAS CANTOR), York, and Norwich ( CIVITAS NORWIC). The obverse inscription reads EDWARD DI GRA REX.

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This means that, alongside the very large mintage amount, the coin was only in circulation for around 2 years before it ceased to be legal tender; making it very likely that most of the coins would’ve been collected or stored away over the years.