1 Penny - William IV

William IV's copper pennies were struck at a moment when the Royal Mint was already under pressure to abandon large copper coinage entirely — the switch to smaller bronze pieces was only two decades away. These issues were produced in comparatively modest quantities relative to the Georgian pennies that preceded them, partly because the reign lasted just seven years and partly because Boulton's steam-pressed Birmingham blanks had already conditioned the public to expect uniform, well-finished copper that hand-operated presses sometimes struggled to match consistently.

The Spink reference covers two distinct issues: the 1831 pieces struck with and without the W.W. initials on the truncation, a small distinction with measurable premium implications for the initialled variety.