It is no doubt very philanthropic of the Royal Mint
to go on coining farthings at a cost of a halfpenny apiece, but is there any sort of sense in it ? Who wants farthings ? They are quite abominable coins. Drapers no longer, so- far as I can observe, addle-patedly price goods at Is. Hid. and the like. The only traders who seem to deal in farthings are bakers; No doubt it pays them. As an occasional purchaser of bread, when I put down 41-d. and spurn the proffered farthing, like wealthy men who care not how they give, I am filled with no sense of lavish generosity, merely with irritation at the silly price. Much better demand 4id. to start with and have done with it. Moreover the existence of these futile coins may at any moment start another Plantagenet Palliser agitating for a five-farthing penny and a ten-penny shilling. A bas le demi-sou.
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