You are right, Bing – although the coin was last
minted in 1956 it stayed in legal tender until 1960. I should have checked my facts on an English rather than American site!
http://www.tclayton.demon.co.uk/farth.htmlIt’s also worth remembering that there were fractional farthings minted in the previous century: half-farthing, third-farthing, and quarter-farthing coins were minted at various times during the 1800s, but circulated only in particular British colonies and not in the UK itself for the most part. The exception was the half farthing, initially issued in 1828 for use exclusively in Ceylon but in 1842 it was made legal tender in the UK despite moans about it being far too tiny a coin to be useful. Although it only lasted until 1869 it must have been in common use since I had several examples amongst a simple coin collection as a kid.
To return to a language point, I have also been reminded that the ‘LSD system’ was not unique to Britain. At some point prior to the revolution (I don’t know when, YCLIU!) a similar pre-decimal system operated in France, also based on the Roman currency, consisting of the
livre (L)
sol (s) and
denier (d).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_currency
