1766 William Pitt Farthing Added to NNP Census of Known Examples

I've had good news recently concerning my example of the 1766 Pitt Farthing - it has now been officially added to the Newman Numismatic Portal (NNP) Census of Pitt Farthings.

The census is the work of numismatic researcher C. McDowell and is a painstakingly researched compendium of all currently known and documented examples.

My example has been added to the census as number 15. Its discovery means that a total of 25 Pitt Farthings are now known and documented.

The census can be found here at the NNP site, should anybody be interested:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/periodical/518981

(The link to the actual census is found at the bottom of the page).

The 1766 William Pitt Farthing is a significant numismatic item which commemorates William Pitt's involvement in the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766. As such, it is a numismatic witness to the events that led to the American Revolution and the birth of the United States as a new and independent nation.

 

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Now THAT is newsworthy. Congratulations.

Steve

 

Thank you, @Stevearino.

I consider this to be the most important item in my collection. It brings everything together for me: historical significance and scarcity.

 

very kool Eduard..congrats..

 

Thank you, @ominus1

 

Very cool. Is great to have something so rare and historical

 

Great article, thanks for sharing, Eduard! Although those pieces circulated in the colonies, only 25 are known to exist... makes me wonder what happened to them? Were they melted to produce later colonial coinage?

@Seattlite86 you may want to read about this

 

Thank you, Michael.
Actually, very little is known about the farthing and about the much more common Halfpenny.
It was originally thought that the dies were engraved in Philadelphia by John Smithers (an English gunsmith and engraver who worked in Philadelphia in the 1760's and 1770's) based on sketches made by Paul Revere.

Current thinking is that the dies and the actual striking were done in England.
The halfpennies did, from what I know, circulate in America, but that is not certain for the farthings. They most probably did not. Likewise, it cannot be explained why the farthings are so rare today. They may have been intended to be medals commemorating Pitt, and as such very few were ever made.