The silver
Three Farthings (žd) coin was introduced in Queen
Elizabeth I's third and fourth coinages (1561-1582) as part of a plan to produce large quantities of coins of varying denominations and high metal content. The obverse shows a left-facing bust of the queen, with a rose behind her, with 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 mintmark at the beginning of the legend
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 14 millimetres in an unclipped coin, compared to 16mm for the three-halfpence.
All the coins are hammered coinage, except for the extremely rare milled coinage of 1563, of which only three examples are known to exist.
For other denominations, see
British coinage.