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
Slug (coin) coin. The two original coins had a net value of under 10p at the then-current exchange rate. Coin detectors were soon reprogrammed to detect and reject the Austrian Schilling. Not long after it was possible to buy on the Internet a bag of 100 washers for under £20 that had been deliberately made to fool the machines into accepting them as £1 coins. Coin detectors were again reprogrammed to reject those slugs as well. The Irish pound coin in use from 1990 to 2002 was the same size as the old pre-decimal penny, so vending machines had to be modified