Most people associate 1912 with the sinking of the unsinkable ship The Titanic but, as numismatists, we think of it as the year the Royal Mint couldn’t produce all the Pennies they needed and had to get an outside firm to help them. That firm was the Heaton Mint Ltd. in Birmingham. So if you look at a 1912 Penny to the left of the date and slightly upward you may well see an ‘H’ mintmark. This was the mintmark for the Heaton Mint. We have made up this pair of 1912 and 1912 H Pennies in a plastic flip-type envelope, so you can see both pennies at the same time. The coins are in selected circulated condition which, considering that they are now 110 years old, is quite good condition. Show them to your friends and ask if they can spot the difference. If they can’t, then you can show them the ‘H’ and explain what else happened.
In the reign of Queen Victoria the Half Farthing was only struck in copper. It is one of the smallest denominations ever made. We have a wonderful group of these copper Half Farthings in very high grade, most of those we have are dated 1844 and are in About Uncirculated condition. You have the Young Head on one side and the date and denomination on the other side. They are struck in copper and now are over 173 years old. But the most interesting thing is their high quality.