1912 H Heaton Mint Penny

Obverse of 1912 Penny

Reverse of 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 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.

The Heaton Mint.
The Heaton Mint in Birmingham was founded in 1850 by Ralph Heaton Jr, the son of a local inventor and entrepreneur. Using second-hand equipment purchased from Matthew Boulton's old Soho Mint, Ralph Heaton pioneered the modern mill striking of bronze coins, and was contracted to produce bronze denominations for France, Italy and various other countries around the world. In 1860, the Mint was also subcontracted by the Royal Mint to strike Britain's new bronze penny, half-penny and farthing issues, which it continued to do until the 1880s, when the Royal Mint purchased machinery from the firm to allow it to strike its own bronze issues. Contracts for producing coins and coin blanks from around the world allowed the Heaton Mint to become the largest private mint in the world. In 1912, the Royal Mint once again subcontracted the Mint to strike enough British pennies to supply demand, and British pennies struck at the Heaton Mint carry an 'H' mintmark near the date on the reverse to denote its origins. During the First World War, the Mint was also employed in other aspects of metalwork, producing brass and copper tubing for bullets and artillery rounds. More Heaton pennies were struck in 1918 and 1919.

In 1935, the Heaton Family lost control of the Mint, and from this time on, coin and coin blank production became a less and less important part of the business compared with other aspects of manufacturing, such as the manufacture of copper tubing for use in industry and armaments.

Some of the last coins produced at the Mint were several million Euro coins issued for circulation in Europe. However, the firm was undergoing financial difficulties at this time, and closed in 2003, with most of its equipment sold off to rival mints, including Lord's Security Mint Ltd and the Pobjoy Mint, who continued the Heaton Mint tradition by buying equipment cheaply from an old defunct mint and putting it to good use themselves!

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.

Obverse
Bare Head, George V facing left
GEORGIVS V DEI GRA BRITT OMN REX FID DEF IND IMP

Reverse:
The reverse features Britannia, seated left, holding a trident.
The legend reads:-
ONE PENNY
1912

Prices & Availability

Date	Description	Grade	Availability	Price £	Price $
1912	Bare Head Penny	gEF	Sold	£150	$230
1912	Bare Head Penny	EF/aEF	Sold	£110	$170

* 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.