Farthing Stamps (1/4d) From British Empire

There was once a farthing value of Australia, (King Edward Vlll)
but was destroyed by burning from orders to do so.

The Bermuda One farthing Provisional.
http://www.bermudacollectorssociety...bwisc-lo.pdf

Hi 22crows,

I appreciate what you're saying. I meant postal equivalent rather than the exchange rate.

Hence the ½pi being green, 1½pi being red, 2½pi being blue.

Nothing to add as far as farthing stamps are concerned, but a few comments on the farthing itself. This was, of course a coin, now obsolete, equal to one quarter of an old penny from the time when there were 240 pennies to the pound sterling. Thus, a farthing was one nine hundred and sixtieth of a pound. This would be like if there were such a thing as a one tenth of a cent coin in the US. Of course, some things are priced using tenths of a cent, gasoline for example where a typical price might be $2.99 and nine tenths per gallon, and a few years ago there were several US stamps depicting old means of transport that had fractional penny denominations, but of course you could never buy exactly one unit of these things without rounding up to the nearest whole penny. However, in the UK and the various other countries that used the farthing (until 1961 in the UK) you actually could use the farthing to pay exact amounts. I was born in the UK and I'm old enough to remember when it was still in circulation and even things that were priced using farthings, and while there was nothing you could buy for just one farthing, I can remember seeing buns in the bakery for one penny and a farthing (usually said as :"penny farthing", which, incidentally was the name of the old 19th century bicycles that had one big wheel in the front and a small wheel in the back). There were even lower denomination coins issued by the Royal Mint: a third of a farthing (one two thousand eight hundred and eightieth of a pound!) which was used exclusively in Malta, which, as shown here had farthing stamps, so there you COULD buy something for a farthing: one postage stamp. These, amazingly were in circulation until as recently as 1913. There were even quarter farthings issued in the 1850's for use exclusively in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka. This is an almost incomprehensibly small amount of money and it's hard to see how the mint could have made a profit on minting and then issuing them.

Farthings (coins) were also in use in America.

I have an 1879 postal card from Heligoland with that denomination, but there it's expressed as "five farthings".

On some stamps from Heligoland we have 1 pfennig = 1 farthing
But on one issue 3 pfennig = 2 ½ farthing
And on another one 5 pf = 3 farthings




I assume that on your card this is 10pf = 5 farthings

Ever considered why your Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos islands farthing stamps are almost always mint, or mint hinged?
CTO Cancelling to Order, was not permitted in the colonies back then (any members have proof?)
Ergo, only dealers prepared covers may have had them.
Non philatelic covers bearing farthing stamps must be very rare.

Why is it then, the Turks and Caicos farthing used, is catalogued at half the price of mint?

Attribution : Noel Davenhill.




Postal Equivalent: One East African Cent was worth 1% of a Shilling = half the value of a farthing.

I was looking through listings of postal stationery from Great Britain and came across this one. I was not aware it existed until just moments ago, and, in a quick check through my Michel postal stationery catalogue (it's listed as P4 - the P is for Postkarten), I believe this is the only GB postal item denominated in farthings or at least multiples thereof.

Postmark : New Discovery for the Postmark Database.
No Duplexes given for this location.

Only Foreign Postcard with a Farthing denomination
Issue Date July 1875
CV : GBP 3.5 c1973

Rothschild, Paris? Wonder if there is any connection to the wine.

Banking.
The de Rothschild Freres banking business was passed down to ensuing generations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roths...ly_of_France

Some more info about the penny farthing post card here:

http://postalstationery.org.uk/Grea...ostcards.htm

Smashing link there, Jill
Interesting story, made good reading, thanks.
I was curious to the penny farthing value, it did seem odd.

I actually bid on that one addressed to the de Rothschild Freres illustrated above. The ebay auction ended this morning but I was outbid in the last few seconds. Still, not to be deterred I looked again on ebay and found no less than 35 of these one penny farthing postal cards for sale, ranging in price from quite reasonable to absolutely absurd, so I chose a reasonably priced one that was a buy it now, and am looking forward to receiving it. I can be quite impulsive that way, there will be something that one minute I didn't even know existed, the next minute I can't live without it. As the only farthing denominated British postal item it will make a nice addition to my GB postal stationery collection, which is fairly rudimentary so far.

I didn't see this one posted yet. Grenada, Scott 131.