The farthing itself, however, was coined sporadically and in smaller quantities until 1942. (By far the highest previous mintage of South African farthings had been 154,233 in 1931.) But again, beginning in 1942 when some 3,756,124 were coined, and continuing until the debut of the new rand coinage after 1960, production of South Africa’s farthing never dropped below 1,000,000 pieces per year.
This somewhat halting start came to my attention When the 1937 1-farthing below came my way....
Its excellent condition came as no real surprise; 1937 was the first year of George VI portrait coinage, and his coronation year, so it was very easy to imagine someone saving it as a memento. But I confess the coin’s small mintage did surprise me: 38,254.
The story behind the two sparrows on South Africa’s farthing is almost too beautiful to be true. As I have read it, a group of women confined in a British prison camp during the Boer war got together and decided that if South Africa ever had a coin denominated 1-farthing, they would lobby to have two sparrows representing Hope and Faith placed upon the little copper.
What inspired them, it is said (in this, my favorite translation), was the Bible verse Matthew 10:29—“Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father knowing it?”
Not only were the women successful, but by the time this 1937 farthing was coined, the two little sparrows had become a real fixture of South African coinage.
v.