1912 Modified Effigy

1912 Penny Showing Letter H to Left of Date Click For Bigger Pictures

Close-Up of Date on 1912 H Penny

In 1911, the National Insurance Act, introduced on July 1st, created created an unusually large demand for bronze and silver coins.
Because of this, some of the Royal Mint's production was subcontracted, including the minting of 16,800,000 pennies struck by The Mint, Birmingham, Limited. As this company now incorporated Ralph Heaton & Sons, these pennies were struck with the mintmark H in the exergue to the left of the date.

More in 1918 and 1919
More pennies were struck by The Mint, Birmingham in 1918 and 1919, These also show the same capital H mintmark to the left of the date.

KN for King's Norton Metal Company Limited
In 1918 and 1919, a quantity of pennies were also struck by the King's Norton Metal Company Limited. These have the letters KN to the left of the date, as their mintmark.

* An excellent book, "English Copper, Tin and Bronze Coins in the British Museum 1558 - 1958", by C. Wilson Peck, published by the Trustees of the British Museum in 1964, is useful for information on this and other designs. It was originally priced at £5.12s.6d (=£5.625), but is now out of print. I have been told that second-hand copies change hands at about £100 in good condition.

If you want to find the value of a coin you own, please take a look at our page I've Found An Old Coin, What's It Worth?

If you have an enquiry about any of our pennies we'd be happy to try to answer you, but do please ensure you look at our other information pages before asking a generalised question.