Not Quite Farthings

I collect farthings and I like to supplement my types with “not quite farthings” such as the Japanese rin, Hong Kong mil and British Palestine mil.   

Imho, the “Holy Grail” of “not quite farthings” would be the pattern “Model Mille” N# 49493. Numista's stock photo shows a holed coin. A nicer example is depicted in Colin Cooke's “Oxford Collection” catalogue, No. 151. If anyone has one they wish to sell, please message me.

Another interesting coin is the Jersey “farthing” which was actually valued at 1⁄52 Shilling (1⁄1040 Pound)

So thus far I  have five coins in the “not quite a farthing” category:

Colony of Hong Kong mil

British Palestine mil

Japanese rin

Jersey 1⁄52 Shilling

Victorian Model Mille

Can anyone suggest another coin that belongs in this grouping?

(It appears that Malta issued 2 and 3 mil coins, but not 1 mil)

(Unofficial farthings are cool too, but in a category of their own, and to the best of my knowledge, they circulated with a value of 1 farthing)

I don't have one, but could count the Sapeque of French Indochina, a tiny coin with a hole in it.

A sapeque was 1/10 of a sen/cent/centime of the Piastre de Commerce. Stamps were also denominated with this.

Any old Chinese or Korean cash coin was worth 1/1000 of a Yuan which was the Hong Kong Mil. The Japanese before the 1870 Meiji reformation of the coinage, called them mon. Coins that looked like Chinese Cash, so worthless, the smallest Silver shu were worth 240 of them and a gold Oban of 4 grams was worth 4800 mon!

When China started issuing modern style coins in the 1870s, a penny sized coin in bronze was 10 cash.

The Turkish also had some tiny coins like the copper 1 Para used before 1916, this was 1/40 of a Piastre worth around 4/3 of a penny. Small 5 and 10 Para in thin nickel were issued before 1916 too.

Later with the Republican Lira, a tiny 1 Kurus coin was issued between 1950 and around 1980.

The coin was 14mm in size and was worth even in 1969 the buying power of 1/10 of a cent! The nickel 1 Lira coin was the size of a quarter.

Later in the 1970s it disappeared and the hyperinflation began, with the slightly larger 5 Kurus becoming a aluminium coin in 1975.

By 1981 the 5 and 10 Lira were aluminium!

Finland between 1963 and 1980 had a currency reform and used a tiny 1 Penni coin made out of aluminium up to around 1975. It was 14mm in size and was essentially useless, the nickel 1 Marka coin could buy a newspaper!

Up to very recently, Russian used a steel 1 Kopecka coin which is worth basically $0.0001 now with 100 roubles to a US dollar. The coin was 15mm in size.

The British between 1827 and 1913 also issued fractional farthings for colonies.

¼ and ½ farthings were issued for use in Ceylon and the West Indies, equating to 1 cent and ½ cent.

Until 1860, they were copper and weighed some 2.4 grams, they got less after the Bronze recoinage of 1860.

Half farthings were legalised for use in Britain as well. This one is about 16.5mm in size, but later Bronze coins weighed just 1.3 grams and were 14mm in size.

The ¼ farthing was smaller at 14mm before 1860 and 12mm after 1860 and had the same design with a small skinny portrait of Victoria. The more jowlly Hanoverian kings took up the whole coin though!

The ⅓ farthing was used in Malta and issued sporadically between 1827 and 1913. This coin equated to an old Maltese/Italiano coin called a grano (grain in English) and thus was popular.

The teensy coin is just 13mm in size and weighs 0.73 of  a gram. I am lucky to have this unc one. Its 1/12 of a penny or some 2880 to a pound!!

Guernsey also issued 1, 2, 4 and 8 Doubles coins from 1830 through to the 1960s. 8 Doubles equalled 1 penny, so a 1 double coin was worth just 1/8 of a penny. I just got one, but have not taken a photo of it yet, but its the same size and shape as the half farthing shown at top. Again the double comes from some ancient French coin the locals used before 1800.

Thank you for the detailed reply! I do have some fractional farthings (¼, ⅓ and ½, all Victorian, including even a tiny Model Quarter Farthing) and I recently acquired a Three Farthing piece from Elizabeth I. As I imagine you already know, the silver farthing was already  too expensive to mint at that point; one made single and double farthing transactions by using ¾d's and pennies to make change. But I was unaware of all the other interesting coins you mentioned! This is the fun part of the hobby… learning from other enthusiasts!

Here is the obverse  of my QEI 3/4d . It weighs less than 0.4 grams. This pic was taken by the seller before the coin came to me. 

The Franc historically was five to the Dollar. So a Centime was worth 1/5 of a Cent. A very tiny denomination, even in the 19th century.

From Second Empire times,  beginning 1851, until the end of  the LMU  in 1918, centime coins, and the Italian Centimo as well, were 1gram 15mm.

 Fascinating! You got me to look up the history of the Franc. I did not realize that the Franc was based on the Livre Tournois, making it a descendent of the Carolingian system. Thus a coin like the Metz Angevine could be considered a true farthing:

City of Metz (French States)

 Angevine = ¼ Denier  = 1⁄960 Livre