Fourpence (British coin) Victoria, designed by Joseph Boehm – the reverse is unchanged. There also exists a pattern coin, dated 1836, which bears the same obverse as the William IV issue coins, but has a different reverse, designed by William Wyon, which has the inscription instead of the words . Fourpence (British coin) The pre-decimal fourpence (4d), sometimes known as a groat (from Dutch "grootpennig" = "big penny") or fourpenny bit, was a coin worth one sixtieth of a pound sterling, or four pence. The coin was also known as a joey after the MP Joseph Hume, who spoke in favour of its
Twopence (British pre-decimal coin) terms of pence, e.g. eight pence would be 8d. These coins were made legal tender for amounts of up to one shilling by a proclamation of 26 July 1797. They were later made redundant in 1860 with the advent of bronze coinage. The minting of silver pennies for general circulation was halted by the British government in 1660, because the cost of silver had risen too high. By the late 1700s this policy had caused a deficiency in the number of circulating pennies, and many merchants and mining companies had taken to issuing their own copper tokens. For example, the