British Halfpenny Now Officially Extinct
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LONDON — The old British halfpenny formally disappeared Tuesday, most likely down the nooks and crannies of the nation’s armchairs.
The insignificant and much-ridiculed copper coin, withdrawn from legal tender, was the last descendant of the respectable silver halfpenny introduced in 1280 by King Edward I.
A halfpenny would buy four pounds of flour in 1324, a dozen eggs in 1400, two mutton chops in 1637, two cigarettes and some matches in 1904 and nothing at all in 1984, when it was worth slightly more than half a U.S. cent.
The final version appeared in 1971. It was the smallest British coin since the Dark Ages, with a diameter of about half an inch.
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