Half-Penny from 1966

Brixham: Coins in the Wall! (2.4.2026)

Administrative matters aside – I notice the above “interior” wall looks as if it used to be an “external” wall – as it looks weather-beaten and worn. Furthermore, in the UK, builders often leave a coin featuring the year any renovations were carried-out as a form of “good luck”. Usually, we find these coins under floor-boards, carpets, and lino, etc. Sometimes they are lodged between wooden joints or under various structures. In this wall, the coins seem cemented on the outside of the wall. There is a 1966 half-penny, and a 1960 three-penny. When I was first at school in the early 1970s – these coins were still in use. The old half-penny would today possess the buying power of £5 – whilst the three-penny bit could buy about £30s worth of goods. This was before the UK joined the EEC (1.1.1973). Prior to this, a British pound was comprised of 240 pence – afterwards it was deliberately devalued to just “100” pence. What a disgrace all this was!

Han & Xin Dynasty – 2,000-year-Old Bronze Coins Unearthed in China’s Xi’an! (5.10.2022)

Zhang said the mint was a national-level one. Xi’an used to be the capital of the Western Han Dynasty when the city was called Chang’an.

In December 2015, archaeologists from the CASS Institute of Archaeology and Xi’an’s institute of cultural relics protection and archaeology jointly launched the excavation work of the site.

The latest round of excavation started in March 2021.

The discoveries are of great significance to the study of coinage technology and the changes in monetary and economic policies of that time, said Zhang.