1/2 Penny - George IV

Nova Scotia's copper coinage of the 1820s was authorized not by London but by the provincial legislature, which had grown frustrated with the chronic shortage of small change strangling retail trade in Halifax. The 1824 halfpenny was struck in Birmingham, almost certainly by Boulton & Watt's successors at the Soho Mint, whose colonial token contracts were then winding down as British authorities slowly tightened control over provincial monetary arrangements.

Breton 869 is the sole major variety for this date, and survivors in problem-free condition are genuinely scarce — the coins circulated hard through decades of maritime commerce.