COINAGE seems to have special fascination for a housewife reader who has popped up with interesting response to my recent yedscratter concerning the old farthing of fond memory.

I'd asked if anyone could say when this tiny coin, worth a quarter of an old penny, was phased out. And now, Mrs S. M. Brown, of Kent Way, Newton-le-Willows, writes: "It ceased to be legal tender in 1952."

And she adds quite a wealth of extra currency!

"The farthing was, until 1279, formed by cutting a penny into quarters,"she says. "The penny came about when silver pennies were first minted in the 8th-century. They were then known as deniers, after the Roman denarii - hence the penny abbreviation, 1d.

"The coins were later cast from bronze and baser metals and the Anglo Saxons called them 'penigs', later corrupted into pennies."

And for the record, Mrs B, who dropped on these details while researching her family history, gives the following examples of the earlier purchasing power of small change.

In 1917, a farthing would buy a candle; a halfpenny a large ice cream; and a penny a bar of chocolate.

"Three pennies would buy two portions of fish and chips," she adds, "it wouldn't buy you half a tub of gravy now, would it?"

HALF a tub? It wouldn't buy you a lick off a spoon, dear lady.

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