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1/2 Penny George Gordon - Britannia
| Issuer | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Year | 1771 |
| Type | Emergency coin |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Seated figure of Britannia facing left, helmeted and draped, holding a trident in her right hand and resting her left arm upon a shield bearing a partial Union device, set upon a rocky plinth. The design closely mimics the official British halfpenny reverse type of the period. The circumferential legend BRITAN . NIA . is disposed around the upper field in raised Latin letters, with the date 1771 appearing in the lower exergual area. The overall composition is a deliberate evasion of the regal Britannia type, typical of privately issued copper tokens of the mid-to-late eighteenth century. |
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| Reverse lettering | BRITAN . NIA . 1771 |
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| Additional information |
The halfpenny coinage of the early 1770s was effectively outsourced — the Royal Mint had so thoroughly neglected copper production that private contractors filled the gap. This piece dates to a period when counterfeit halfpennies were so prevalent that genuine regal issues were actually harder to find in circulation than the fakes. Matthew Boulton's famous complaint to Parliament in 1773 estimated that up to half of all copper coin passing through Birmingham's markets was counterfeit.
Atkins 116 places this among the documented regal issues of George III's reign, struck under contract conditions rather than direct Mint supervision.