The farthing (d) () was the lowest value coin of the pre-decimal

Irish pound The pound ( Irish: ) was the currency of Ireland until 2002. Its ISO 4217 code was IEP, and the symbol was £ (or £Ir for distinction.) The Irish pound was replaced by the euro on 1 January 1999. Euro currency did not begin circulation unti ...

, worth a quarter of a

penny A penny is a coin (: pennies) or a unit of currency (: pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. At present, it is ...

, of a

shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currency, currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 1 ...

or of a pound. The coin had lost much of its value through

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the average price of goods and services in terms of money. This increase is measured using a price index, typically a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of curre ...

long before

decimalisation Decimalisation or decimalization (see American and British English spelling differences, spelling differences) is the conversion of a system of currency or of weights and measures to units related by Power of 10, powers of 10. Most countries have ...

in 1971, and during the 1960s no farthings were produced for general circulation; those minted in 1966 were produced for collectors' sets. The coins officially measured in diameter and weighed 2.83495

gram The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a Physical unit, unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one thousandth of a kilogram. Originally defined in 1795 as "the absolute Mass versus weight, weight of a volume ...

s ( oz). The

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

coin is (was) made up of 95.5%

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

, 3% tin and 1.5%

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

. It was introduced in 1928 to replace the British farthing and ceased to be legal tender on 1 August 1969. As the Irish pound was pegged to the British pound until 1979, the Irish farthing had the same dimensions and weight as the British version. The reverse design featuring a

woodcock The woodcocks are a group of seven or eight very similar living species of sandpipers in the genus ''Scolopax''. The genus name is Latin for a snipe or woodcock, and until around 1800 was used to refer to a variety of waders. The English name ...

was by English artist Percy Metcalfe. The obverse featured the Irish harp. From 1928 through 1937 the date was split either side of the harp with the name '' Saorstát Éireann'' circling around. From 1938 through 1966 the inscription changed to ''

Éire ( , ) is the Irish language name for "Ireland". Like its English counterpart, the term is used for both the island of Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the sovereign state that governs 85% of the island's landmass. The latter is distinc ...

'' on the left of the harp and the date on the right. The woodcock was reused on the decimal 50p coin introduced in 1970. Ireland is one of only four nations (the others being Britain,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, and

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

) to issue farthing coins in the 20th century. Irish farthings, like all non-current Irish coins, may be redeemed for euros at the Central Bank of Ireland in Dublin. Due to its slight value (€0.00132), several must be redeemed to have any return at all.

References

External links

Coinage Act, 1926Irish coinage website – catalogue – farthings
{{Irish currency and coinage farthing coin fr:Farthing

See also

References

External links