1 Farthing - William IV (1831–1837)

One row for each year the 1 Farthing - William IV 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. 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 1831 1 Farthing - William IV

The 1831 1 Farthing - William IV is a circulating 1 farthing coin issued from 1831 to 1837, struck in copper. It weighs 4.72g and measures 22mm across. Reverse design: Seated figure of Britannia facing right, trident in left hand, shield with Union flag in right, legend around, national flower emblems in exergue.

Mintage figures are recorded for 5 years between 1831 and 1837, 10,644,360 coins in all. 1836 is the scarcest date, with 1,290,200 struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1869), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

Copper coinage was struck again under George IV after a long pause, and the farthing was struck regularly under both George IV and William IV. When William came to the throne in 1830 the Mint kept the existing farthing and simply changed the portrait and the King's name. Wikipedia records farthings dated 1831 and 1834 to 1837, the last struck in the year of the King's death; there are none dated 1832 or 1833.

Coin Hunter gives 2,688,000 for 1831, 1,935,360 for 1834, 1,720,320 for 1835, 1,290,240 for 1836 and 3,010,560 for 1837, about 10.6 million in all. The farthings were replaced, with the rest of the heavy copper coinage, by lighter bronze coins from December 1860. Wikipedia states that the old coppers were demonetised after 31 December 1869 in Britain, though the Mint still took them until 1873.

The obverse carries the King's bare head facing right with GULIELMUS IIII DEI GRATIA and the date. The Royal Mint Museum explains that William Wyon engraved William IV's coinage portraits, but that they were not entirely his own work, being based on a bust by the sculptor Francis Chantrey.

Wyon, by then Chief Engraver, left the reverse of George IV's farthing unchanged: a helmeted Britannia seated right with shield and trident, BRITANNIAR REX FID DEF around and the rose, thistle and shamrock below. Wikipedia translates the legend as "King of the British Territories, Defender of the Faith".

Varieties and errors

Tony Clayton describes two reverses that differ in the marking on the arms of the saltire on Britannia's shield. Type A has an incuse line down the arms and is found from 1831 to 1835; type B has a thin raised line and is found from 1834 to 1837, so 1834 and 1835 exist with both. Proofs dated 1831 exist, some bronzed.

Collecting notes

To identify the reverse type, look closely at the diagonal arms of the shield's saltire under magnification. Copper of this period tones and corrodes easily, so the colour and surface matter as much as wear on the King's hair and Britannia's shield.

The five dates sit close together in mintage, with 1836 the lowest on Coin Hunter's figures. The larger coppers of the reign are the William IV halfpenny and the William IV penny, each struck in only three years.