1/2 Penny - George III Gold Strike Pattern

Gold strikes of circulation coin dies were produced by the Royal Mint primarily as presentation pieces and cabinet specimens for collectors, officials, and dignitaries — not as proposed monetary issues. The half penny dies in use during this window were working production dies, meaning these gold impressions were pulled from the same steel as the copper coins filling British pockets. No special pattern dies were cut.

Demand from serious Victorian collectors drove the Mint to accommodate private commissions of this kind through much of the nineteenth century, a practice that grew contentious and was largely curtailed by the 1880s.