Farthing (British coin)

One farthing

United Kingdom
Value	1/4d sterling
Mass	2.83 g
Diameter	20.19 mm
Thickness	0.666 mm
Edge	Plain
Composition	Bronze
Years of minting	1860–1956
Obverse
Design	Elizabeth II
Designer	Mary Gillick
Design date	1953
Reverse
Design	Wren (Britannia on earlier mintages)
Designer	Harold Wilson Parker
Design date	1937

The British farthing (from Old English fēorðing, from fēorða, a fourth) abbreviated qua. (L. quadrans),^[1] was a denomination of sterling coinage worth 1/960 of one pound, 1/48 of one shilling, or 1/4 of one penny; initially minted in copper and then in bronze, which replaced the earlier English farthings. Before Decimal Day in 1971, Britain used the Carolingian monetary system, wherein the largest unit was a pound sterling of 20 shillings, each of 12 pence. Each penny was divided into 4 farthings, thus, a pound sterling contained 960 farthings, and a shilling contained 48 farthings. From 1860 to 1971, the purchasing power of a farthing ranged between 12p and 0.2p in 2017 values.^[2]

The farthing coin was legal tender during the reigns of eleven British monarchs: George I, George II, and George III, George IV, William IV, and Victoria, Edward VII and George V, Edward VIII, George VI, and Elizabeth II. In Britain and Northern Ireland the farthing coin ceased to be legal tender on 1 January 1961;^[3] however, the farthing remained legal tender in the Falkland Islands, the Falkland Islands Dependencies, and the British Antarctic Territory until 31 October 1970.^[4]

In two-and-a-half centuries in circulation as British currency, the reverse face of the farthing coin was minted in two designs: (i) from the 18th century until 1936, the farthing featured the figure of Britannia; and (ii) from 1937, the farthing featured the image of a wren. Like all British coins, the obverse face of the farthing coin bore the portrait of the incumbent monarch.^[5]