1 Farthing - George VI with 'IND:IMP' (1937–1948)

One row for each year the 1 Farthing - George VI with 'IND:IMP' was struck. Prices are medians of verified sold listings matched to that year from the listing: circulated is worn condition up to Extremely Fine, uncirculated is About Uncirculated or better. A count in brackets means fewer than three sales behind the figure; a grey figure marked "type" is the median across every year, shown where that year has no sale of its own yet; years with no sales yet fill in as sales are recorded. Most types have been searched year by year only since October 2026, so later years are still filling in. Use the grade table below for a price by condition across all years.

About the 1937 1 Farthing - George VI with 'IND:IMP'

The 1937 1 Farthing - George VI with 'IND:IMP' is a circulating 1 farthing coin issued from 1937 to 1948, struck in bronze. It weighs 2.83g and measures 20mm across. Reverse design: Eurasian wren left (Troglodytes troglodytes), date above and denomination below (from the Greek 'troglodytes' meaning cave-dweller).

Mintage figures are recorded for 12 years between 1937 and 1948, 259,502,400 coins in all. 1938 is the scarcest date, with 7,449,600 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1960), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

The farthing, a quarter of a penny, had carried Britannia since the 17th century. The Royal Mint Museum notes that she was replaced in 1937, when a wren was adopted for the farthing and a sailing ship for the halfpenny. The royal proclamation of 18 March 1937 set the designs for George VI's coinage and described the farthing's reverse simply as the representation of a wren with the word FARTHING and the date.

This first type was struck every year from 1937 to 1948. Coin Hunter and Wikipedia agree on every date, totalling 259,502,400 coins. The two pre-war years were the smallest, 8,131,200 in 1937 and 7,449,600 in 1938, before output jumped to 31,440,000 in 1939 and peaked at 33,345,600 in 1943. The Royal Mint Museum says the farthing gained importance during the Second World War, though it never circulated as freely as the halfpenny.

The obverse is Thomas Humphrey Paget's uncrowned portrait of George VI facing left. The Royal Mint Museum records that Paget alone was commissioned to prepare the effigy after the abdication, and produced it in little more than a month. The legend, as the proclamation gives it, is GEORGIVS VI D:G:BR:OMN:REX F:D:IND:IMP., ending with the King's title as Emperor of India.

The wren was the work of Harold Wilson Parker, a sculptor raised in Queensland, who submitted it among his designs for Edward VIII's proposed coinage in 1936. Wikipedia notes it remained on the farthing for the rest of the coin's existence. The date sits above the bird and FARTHING below, and the edge is plain.

Collecting notes

All dates are common in circulated grades. For a date run the lowest figures are 1938 and 1937, both still several million. Tony Clayton lists proof examples as rare for most dates, apart from the 1937 coronation proof sets, which he describes as common.

The farthing's later years were quiet. Minting ceased in 1956 and the Royal Mint Museum records that farthings were demonetised at the end of 1960, so none can be spent today. From 1949 the legend lost IND IMP; that type has its own page as the George VI farthing without IND IMP.