George III 1805 Pattern Halfpenny

George III (1760-1820), Pattern copper Halfpenny, 1805, restrike by W J Taylor, laureate and draped bust right, legend and toothed border surrounding with raised rim, GEORGIUS III. D: G. REX. rev. inverted die axis, Britannia seated left with olive branch, trident and shield, ship to left with five incuse gunports, legend BRITANNNIARUM above, date below, edge plain, weight 13.63g (Peck 1309 Restrike 91). A few tiny black specks and flecks, mainly on obverse, otherwise toned, practically as struck and rare.

The Victorian coin dealer William Joseph Taylor (1802-85) trading in London from 1829, purchased many dies at the Soho Mint sale by Fuller and Horsey in April-May 1850, the Mint having closed in 1848. Having restored many of the dies Taylor pressed them back into service producing restrikes of Soho coins for collectors as well as repairing some of the more broken dies to make some new designs of his own. C Wilson Peck attempted to class the Restrikes separately from the original Soho pieces in his publication, and these 1805 Halfpennies are known to have been stored in these colour coded paper wrappings. Appendix 10 of Peck's book gives a transcript of one consignment of such restrikes including 23 1805 Halfpennies from 70 Red Lion Street on 29^th June 1880.

The Latin legends translate to on obverse "George III by the Grace of God, King" continuing on the reverse as "of all the Briton's."