Talk:Farthing (British coin)

"Incumbent"?
Any reason not to say "the reigning monarch"? Were any monarchs incumbent who were not reigning? Is this a reference to the time before coronation? Don't they reign from the moment the previous monarch dies? -- Hugh7 (talk) 22:42, 7 October 2023 (UTC)

Naming
We should keep articles at simple names (see naming conventions (common names)). Therefore this content should live at farthing, I believe. Unless there are non-UK farthings? Martin 23:23 Apr 30, 2003 (UTC)

I think there were Irish farthings, and I wouldn't be surprised about any Australian etc ones. The problem is that we are currently producing articles linked off British coinage for each denomination ever circulated, and it is necessary to have more complex naming conventions to distinguish between coins of the same name, e.g. the 14th century English coin Florin or Double Leopard, worth six shillings, and the 19th/20th century British coin Florin worth two shillings. This convention had been created before I discovered Wikipedia, and I'm just continuing it. The Farthing article was the only non-standard one which previously existed, and the redirect from there to here should catch any inadvertent links to the old article.

This naming style does reflect that the farthing existed before the British state -- I reserve the right to be inconsistent in not writing about the Mercian/English/British coin Penny! -- Arwel 23:41 Apr 30, 2003 (UTC)

Etymology
I restored the etymology from "far-thing" to the original "four-thing". However I do not know whether that is right or only someone's guess. Please check, and confirm or correct... Thanks. Jorge Stolfi 22:08, 18 May 2004 (UTC)


 * Cheers - my mistake! Mark Richards 22:18, 18 May 2004 (UTC)


 * I believe a farthing is Anglo-saxon or Norse for a quarter, and riding is Anglo-saxon or Norse for a third - which makes sense. Can anybody verify this? TiffaF 15:27, 25 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Isn't it from "fourth-ing"? Hugh7 (talk) 22:35, 7 October 2023 (UTC)

End of validity
I'm reverting the recent change that the farthing ceased to be legal tender on 1 January 1961; my authority is Coincraft's Standard Catalogue of English & UK coins 1066 to Date which states that it ceased to be legal tender "after 31 December 1960". What's the difference? Well, the date is given twice in the article, and the second one as it now stands (apart from a typo of 13 January) implies they were still valid on 1-1-61. -- Arwel 23:18, 25 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Crane
''During the reign of Charles I, (1625–1649), farthings continued to be produced under the king's licence. In 1623 the Duke of Lennox had also become Duke of Richmond, but died a few months later. The farthing patent passed to his widow, Frances, Duchess of Richmond and Sir Francis Crane. The first issues of Charles I are consequently called Richmonds. In 1634 another farthing patent was issued, to Lord Maltravers, Henry Howard, and Sir Francis Crane, their issues being known as Maltravers.''

Is this correct? Why should Sir Crane get the patent together with both Frances, Duchess of Richmond, and Lord Maltravers, Henry Howard? What was his rekation to them?Ladypine 07:09, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

Britannia on the obverse?
"and Pistrucci's treatment of Britannia on the obverse was not much better," - This seems like a mistake, Britannia was always on the reverse.Ladypine 16:22, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Value
Can anybody say what the buying power of one farthing was, say, approximately during the Victorian era? Like compared to the Euro-Cent, which is considered necessary for giving change but has no real buying power, as there is really no item to be bought for less than 10 or 15 ct. Basically I'm intrigued by some modern day politicians claiming that "the rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer". I find it interesting that people from different walks of life at one time calculated their income and their purchases in units as far apart as the farthing on the one side and the guinea on the other. --BjKa (talk) 11:57, 23 November 2007 (UTC)


 * On the subject of value. How can it be said that a 1956 farthing is worth 2p in 2006 prices when it also says the bus fare was 8 farthings. That would make the bus fare 16p. I challenge anyone to find a normal bus fare for 16p in Britain today. City bus fares start at about a pound these days. --82.69.159.142 (talk) 02:51, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Something is broken in wikitext
"worth £1 (pre-decimal)| penny]]" I'm not sure how to fix it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vi2 (talk • contribs) 01:16, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Other use of name.
It seems to have been omitted that the name of this coin was used in the popular name in Britain of the Ordinary Bicycle or "Penny-Farthing" referring to the difference in size between the large front wheel and small rear wheel similar to the large penny coin and small farthing. 94.197.158.199 (talk) 22:20, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Fractional farthings
The British at one time minted coins worth 1/3 and 1/4 of a farthing. Any further information on this, including what such a low valued coin could purchase?67.117.147.253 (talk) 17:09, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

effects
From the swedish rounding article:

When small-value coins are withdrawn, an alternative to the implementation of cash rounding is instead to increase the minimum unit of account to the smallest remaining currency unit and round all prices and bank accounts to this value. Whereas cash rounding is an ongoing process, this alternative is a one-time conversion. It was done, for example, when the British farthing was withdrawn in 1960.

So, a short bit about how all prices were changed to not have farthings is in order. That is, when the farthing was removed, how did this impact British pricing? The answer seems to be "any price containing farthings were changed to a price not containing farthings".

As opposed to keeping calculating with farthings, and then rounding off the finall tally (swedish rounding), that is. CapnZapp (talk) 13:34, 16 September 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Farthing (British coin). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090216014336/http://myfarthings.co.uk/ to http://www.myfarthings.co.uk/

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 14:25, 28 September 2017 (UTC)

Victoria D G Britt Reg F D
Coin 50.96.204.221 (talk) 03:56, 7 September 2023 (UTC)