Catalogue description Royal Mint: Coinage: Imperial (Copper, Bronze and Base Metal)

The production of copper coinage began in 1672 and continued intermittently until 1701. It resumed in 1719 and continued with some breaks to 1775. By 1797, there were so many counterfeit half pence in circulation that the Government decided upon the issue of a new copper coinage consisting of two pences, pence, half pence and farthings. Production of this coinage was contracted to the firm of Boulton and Watt during the period 1797 to 1807.

When ample supplies of the new coins had become available, the public refused to take the old half pence issued by the Mint from 1719 to 1775; and an Order in Council for its withdrawal was issued in 1814. The withdrawal of the old half pence, which had then become known as the Old Tower half pence, continued until they were stopped by proclamation of the 17th December, 1817.

In 1860, bronze coins were introduced and the old copper coins were withdrawn by 1869. The Royal Mint continued to produce bronze coins throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, although some were made by contractors - Heaton and Son, the Birmingham Mint and the King's Norton Metal Company. A new formula for making bronze coins came in in 1922 and some earlier designs of coin began to be withdrawn in that year.