Any information about this coin would be much appreciated. It is very worn and the date is not visible. The coin weighs 6g is 27mm in diameter and is not magnetic. It's probably not worth much but I'm very interested in the possible history of the coin.
It is a George III halfpenny, and it appears to be heavy enough to be genuine.
The penalties for counterfeiting copper coins were lesser than those for counterfeiting gold and silver coins, and the British government did not generally provide enough copper coinage for commercial demands, so there were tons of counterfeit halfpennies during George III's reign. They are, generally, much lighter than the genuine coins.
The lightweight contemporary counterfeits are sometimes called "Bungtown Tokens".
Many of these are documented in "America's Forgotten Coins".
The coins minted at Machin's Mills, New York, are much more valuable than the genuine coins, since they are collected as U. S. Colonial Coins. The Redbook ("A Guidebook of United States Coins" by R. S. Yeoman) indicates the identification points for these.
The date would be at the bottom of the reverse, beneath the platform on which Britannia is seated. It is not visible on many varieties, but the general date would be 1770-1775.
That's exactly it. The proportions seem off ─ I mean, the design seems to be too big compared to the size of the blank (which seems to be right at 27 mm).
Quote: "Camerinvs"That's exactly it. The proportions seem off ─ I mean, the design seems to be too big compared to the size of the blank (which seems to be right at 27 mm).
You have me convinced too; I initially thought it was an early George III farthing instead of the halfpenny, but then I looked at the given diameter; and now after seeing that image comparison above I have to agree.
The Redbook states that genuine George III halfpennies should weigh about 9.5 grams, with a diameter of 29mm. Coincraft (2000) states that the George III halfpennies of 1770-75 weigh 9.2-10.8 grams, with a diameter of 29-30mm.
The Numista catalog at https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces5335.html indicates a weight of 6.3 grams and a diameter of 27mm; obviously, the Numista data is incorrect, and should be changed.
I had taken the Numista data to be correct, so I could not understand why your coin, which looks to be a contemporary counterfeit, would be close to the royal weight. When we compare it to the correct royal weight, it confirms that yours is a lightweight contemporary counterfeit.
Apologies for the data error on the page; it would appear that the incorrect data was uploaded some 9 years ago and had avoided detection all this time - until now! Since I don't have a high grade example of this coin (I wish!) I have taken the weight and diameter info from Tony Clayton's website - 10g and 29mm. It was after the great recoinage of 1816 that the halfpennies were reduced to 9.3g and 28mm, and then again during Victoria's reign, the halfpennies were changed from copper to bronze and again reduced in size, this time to 5.7g and 25mm.
Just because you can't see it ... doesn't mean it isn't there - Anon.
my father found this one in Quebec today, it’s was super slick, we thought it was a token. He clean/damage it for fun, but it made it so I was able to ID it so I told him to stop aha! Thing is it weight 5.8g.. Any thought? ½ penny, farthing, counterfeit or maybe issued for colony?
Its a contemporary circulating counterfeit. See if you can read the date or post a blowup of the date image here. Not that it matters on its a CCC of the period.
