1 Farthing - William and Mary small busts

William and Mary's early farthings were struck in tin with a copper plug at the centre — a deliberate anti-counterfeiting measure introduced under Charles II in 1684, when the government sought to make unofficial copying of small copper coinage unprofitable by using a more complex and expensive process. The small-bust variety of 1689 represents the first year of the new joint reign, produced just months after William landed at Brixham and James II fled to France.

Tin coinage proved deeply unpractical. The metal oxidizes aggressively in circulation, and surviving examples with any surface detail are genuinely uncommon. The series was abandoned in favour of plain copper by 1694.