½ Penny - George III Pattern (1799)

About the 1799 Halfpenny - George III Pattern

The 1799 Halfpenny - George III Pattern is a collector ½ penny coin, struck in copper. It weighs 14.4g. Reverse design: Seated figure of Britannia facing left, holding trident in left hand and olive branch in right, shield with Union flag resting at right, three masted sailing ship in the background at left, legend above, date in exergue.

It is no longer legal tender, so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

Before the 1799 halfpenny went into production, Matthew Boulton's Soho Mint in Birmingham struck trial pieces to settle the design. The Ashmolean Museum, which received a Soho collection in 2025, holds several 1799 patterns with a crowned and draped bust of George III, listed as early Soho strikings. The coin actually issued uses a laureate bust instead, so the crowned bust is a rejected design.

The Royal Mint Museum also has a 1799 pattern halfpenny, RMM 1110 (Peck 1242), recorded in its 1874 and 1906 collection catalogues. No number struck is recorded for any of these pieces, and none was issued as money.

The Ashmolean credits the dies to Conrad Heinrich Küchler, who engraved the issued 1799 coin. The obverse of the pattern shows George III crowned and draped, facing right, and on several examples a K with three dots appears on the truncation. The reverse has Britannia seated left, as on the issued coin; the site's own description adds a three-masted ship behind her.

The Ashmolean's crowned-bust pieces are about 30 mm across and weigh between 12.68 g and 12.91 g, close to the circulating coin. Their edges are centre-grained and the two sides are upside down to each other. Most are copper gilt; one is plain copper.

Varieties and errors

The Ashmolean lists two catalogue types of the crowned bust, BMC 1218 and BMC 1221, both in gilt, plus a plain copper piece of the second type. Wildwinds records a bronze crowned-bust restrike, Peck 1258, and Clayton illustrates a 1799 pattern under that number.

Collecting notes

Tony Clayton notes that Boulton made later strikes of his coppers in a variety of metals, and that W.J. Taylor struck more after buying the Soho dies; he believes die corrosion marks are the main way to separate them. Any 1799 pattern should be checked for rust pitting in the fields, and its weight and edge compared with the museum pieces above.

The issued coin with the laureate bust is the 1799 halfpenny, and gilt strikings of that adopted design are on the 1799 proof page.