English three farthing coin
The silver three-farthing coin was introduced in Queen Elizabeth I's third and fourth coinages, as part of a plan to produce large quantities of coins of varying denominations and high metal content. It was worth shilling, or pound sterling.
The obverse shows a left-facing bust of the queen, with a rose behind her and the legend E D G ROSA SINE SPINA – Elizabeth, by the grace of God a rose without a thorn – while the reverse shows the royal arms with the date above the arms and a mint mark at the beginning of the legend reading CIVITAS LONDON – City of London, the Tower Mint.
The three-farthings coin closely resembles the three-halfpence coin, differing only in the diameter, which is for an unclipped coin, compared to for the three-halfpence.
All the coins are hammered, except for the extremely rare milled three-farthings of 1563, of which only three examples are known to exist.