The Goose is Getting Fat Christmas Carol Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat Please put a penny in the old man's hat. If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do. IF you haven't got a ha'penny, God Bless YOU!
As mentioned by @Evan Saltis, that is indeed a real 1895 British large penny, though rather common. PS- they're cool coins, and collecting those is what started my 40+ year love affair with World coins.
England has a very strong replica industry aimed at tourists. My mom and brother visited in the mid-‘90s and came home with replica cards of coins from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. “Fake” has a negative connotation, “replica” more positive as they are made not intending fraud. My first take on this coin was it was genuine, the wear patterns to the designs on both sides track with the coins age. ...imo...Spark
No need to apologize...we all have good info to spread around...helps us keep things in context and learn new things...Spark
I think he meant that even the ha’penny for that date was a large copper coin...not a small cent like today...Spark
I've also seen Replica obsolete Italian coins sold in Italy and they are openly sold as replicas. They are not trying to fool people into thinking they are genuine. The problem is sometimes these replicas find their way on to American eBay and they are being sold as genuine.
The replica coins can usually be spotted easily as they are made by west air reproductions and have wrl imprinted on the coin I presume that they are the ones you are referring to as they are sold in most historical places of interest.