1/2 Penny - George IV no hyphen

Nova Scotia's copper coinage of the early 1820s was struck at the Soho Mint in Birmingham, by then operating under the direction of Matthew Boulton's successors following his death in 1809. The provincial authorities contracted privately for this issue rather than relying on a Royal Mint striking, a common arrangement for British colonial copper at the time.

The "no hyphen" variety — distinguished from NS-1A by the absence of a hyphen between "NOVA" and "SCOTIA" on the coin — is the scarcer of the two 1823 halfpenny die varieties catalogued by Breton.