In 1900 in the US, the smallest denomination we had was the cent. However in 1900, in Great Britain, they had the farthing, which was worth 1/4 of a cent. Great britain's smallest non-maundy coins at the time were the 3 pence. They were worth 3 pennies, or 12 farthings. In the US, the smallest silver coin was the dine, and it was worth 10 cents. So in one country, you can get a silver coin for 3 pennies, and in the other, it takes 10 cents. So I take it the purchasing power of the cent was more than ours? Does anyone know the conversion rate for that point in time? If I understand it, the farthing is worth one of our cents.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tables_of_historical_exchange_rates_to_the_United_States_dollar Go to the Table for 1840 to 2000, and see where the 1900 column and the Pound Sterling line meet. Christian
British sterling traded at about $4.80, there were 240 British pence to the Pound - a British penny was roughly the equivalent of 2 US cents. A farthing would have been roughly half a cent, a three pence the equivalent of about 6 cents. British threepence did circulate in Canada as a five cent coin - and Canada's smallest coin was the 5 cent in sterling silver. The US only got rid of the silver half dime because of Civil War era hoarding - which was how we ended up with the nickel instead. Farthings were fairly uncommon in circulation by 1900, and by 1956 their value had plummeted to the point at which they were eliminated altogether.
Groats could have circulated in Britain as fourpence but usually didn't, curiously during the early 19th century to the early 20th century there were fractional farthings created for circulation in Britain's colonies - the last to use them was Malta in 1913. The only fractional farthings that saw circulation in Britain were half farthings beginning in the 1840s but they were more of a conversational curio than something that really saw serious circulation.
There was also the 2 pence, but that was mainly maundy money. I think from 1817-1820 it WAS a circulating coin. There was also the 1 1/2 pence, but it was short lived. As during the reign of George III, there was also a circulating silver penny.
