HIDDEN IMAGES: THE RAT HALFPENNY

Your recent articles in The E-Sylum about hidden pictures within others, e.g. the "Devil's Head" photograph of Elizabeth II, prompts me to enquire how many of your readers have heard of the "Rat Halfpenny" and other similar British coins of George II.

It would appear that the engraver of the time, John Tanner, and/or possibly his predecessor John Croker, was possessed of what today would be colloquially described as a rather wicked sense of humour. If you look closely at the folds of the clothing which cover Britannia's right leg on a decent condition young head George II halfpenny, it would appear that she has a rat crawling up it; whilst if you turn the piece over, the head of a cat may be discerned atop the kings head, with its eye formed by the top curl of hair and its ears by the upmost two leaves of the wreath. Nor were our numismatic miscreants less active on the Old Head pieces, where certain gargoyles can sometimes be discerned in the lower reaches of the hairpiece on the silver.

How well these devices were appreciated by the public of the time I am not sure, but possibly it may be the reason why Tanner's surname became adopted for posterity as the slang term for the sixpence.

Robert Walpole's skilful handling of the South Sea Bubble had won him a similar honour a few years previously in respect of the shilling, after the common 1723 SSC coin of that value into which the South Sea Company's confiscated bullion assets were predominantly converted; as is well known, the diminutive of Robert is Bob. Maybe Tanner just happened to be the right man in the right place at the right time when the public were looking to name the sixpence.

1723 SSC reverse

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: YOUSUF KARSH AND THE "DEVIL'S HEAD" PHOTO OF ELIZABETH II (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n03a23.html)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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