1 Farthing - George I 'Dump' issue (1717–1718)

About the 1717 1 Farthing - George I 'Dump' issue

The 1717 1 Farthing - George I 'Dump' issue is a circulating 1 farthing coin issued from 1717 to 1718, struck in copper. It weighs 5.4g and measures 20mm across. Reverse design: Seated figure of Britannia facing left, trident in left hand, branch in raised right hand, shield with Union flag resting on left, legend around, date in exergue.

It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1817), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

After the accession of George I in 1714 there was at first no need for new copper. Wikipedia's history of the halfpenny records that the surplus left from earlier reigns was used up soon after, and that in 1717 a new contract was signed and a Royal Warrant issued for fresh copper coin. The farthing and halfpenny of that year were the first British copper of the new reign.

Tony Clayton describes the 1717 farthing as struck on a small flan, the so-called Dump issue, before the coin returned to a larger flan from 1719. The Royal Mint Museum's own example, recorded in the Mint's 1874 and 1906 collection catalogues, was struck at the Tower and weighs 4.89 g. Isaac Newton was Master of the Mint at the time, and the Royal Mint Museum notes that he supervised experiments on the purity of copper. No mintage figure is recorded for this coin.

The obverse carries a right-facing bust of the King, and the reverse the seated figure of Britannia with the date in the exergue, the type used on British farthings until 1936. As Clayton points out, these early copper coins carry no statement of value: a farthing can only be told from a halfpenny by its size.

Wikipedia's article on John Croker, Chief Engraver at the Mint from 1705, says that almost all the dies for George I's coins were his work, though the engraver of the farthing itself is not recorded. The Royal Mint Museum records a plain edge and an inverted die axis on its example.

Collecting notes

Size and thickness are the test. A Bradford Museums record notes that George I's first halfpence and farthings were thicker and smaller than those from 1719 onwards, hence the name. A Dump farthing is noticeably smaller and thicker than the 1719 to 1724 coins, so a worn piece with an unclear date can still be placed by its flan. Clayton warns that the style of the date numerals on George I farthings can be unfamiliar and lead to an apparently unknown date being read.

The coin that followed is the larger-flan farthing of 1719 to 1724. A rare 1718 farthing struck in silver, catalogued by the Royal Mint Museum as a proof, is the 1718 pattern. George I's farthings stopped being current in December 1817, when a royal proclamation called in all Mint copper issued before 26 July 1797.