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The British fourpence coin, sometimes known as a groat, is a silver coin valued at 1⁄60 of one pound or 1⁄3 of one shilling. It was struck throughout the 18th century, though by 1800 it had come mostly to be coined to be given as ceremonial alms at the Royal Maundy service. It returned as a circulating coin in 1836, as the Royal Mint sought to fill the gap between the penny and the sixpence. The fourpence was issued at the urging of the politician Joseph Hume, who noted that fourpence was the cab fare for short journeys. The new coin did not endear him to hackney drivers, who had often received sixpence without a request for change, and they gave it the nickname "joey". There was also confusion between it and the sixpence. The threepence, struck for use in Britain from 1845, proved more popular than the fourpence, which was struck only once for circulation after the mid-1850s. This was in 1888 for use in British Guiana, though it continued to be used in Scotland for many years. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Postage stamp commemorating the Corrective Move

... that the 1969 Corrective Move (commemorative stamp pictured) transformed South Yemen into a communist state?
... that more than 50 New Caledonian women enlisted to join a World War II Free French regiment, but only two – Raymonde Jore and Raymonde Rolly – ultimately served?
... that Muhammad Ahmed Miftah was arrested while leading prayers 20 years before becoming prime minister of the Houthi-led government of Yemen?
... that the Irwin Union Bank's glass walls and open-plan layout, uncommon for an American bank building of its time, led to its designation as a historic landmark?
... that circus performer Franz Taibosh began his career dancing for British soldiers during the Second Boer War?
... that one issue with understanding the culture of Champa is that surviving inscriptions are concerned almost exclusively with the elite?
... that Fernando Garibay described his collaboration with Kylie Minogue as "Peter Pan meets Tinker Bell"?
... that Juventus Women were champions of Italy every year for their first five years of existence?

In the news

Dina Boluarte

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An explosion at an explosives manufacturing plant in Tennessee, United States, kills at least 16 people.
María Corina Machado is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her pro-democracy activism in Venezuela.

On this day

October 14: Shemini Atzeret (Judaism, 2025)

Battle of Hastings, as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry

1066 – Norman Conquest: William the Conqueror's forces defeated the English army at Hastings and killed Harold Godwinson (depicted), the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England.
1805 – War of the Third Coalition: French forces under Marshal Michel Ney defeated Austrian forces in Elchingen, present-day Germany.
1913 – The worst mining accident in the United Kingdom's history took place when an explosion resulted in 440 deaths at the Universal Colliery in Senghenydd, Wales.
1943 – The Second Philippine Republic, a Japanese puppet state, was established with Jose P. Laurel as its first president.
1964 – Members of the Politburo voted to remove Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and replace him with Leonid Brezhnev.

Benning Wentworth (d. 1770)
Laura Askew Haygood (b. 1845)
Charlie Joiner (b. 1947)
Mathieu Kérékou (d. 2015)

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Today's featured picture

Devonshire Lodge, also known as the Low–Martin House, is a mansion located in the Walkerville neighbourhood of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Commissioned by the rum-runner Harry Low in 1927 and designed by George Lawton, likely with input from Low, the mansion and its accompanying coach house was built in the style of a Cotswold cottage and completed in 1928. After Low defaulted on his mortgage, the building was sold in 1938 and in 1949. In 1961, it was purchased by Paul Martin Sr., a local Member of Parliament, who lived there until his death. By 2008, the Lodge required extensive renovations, which were ultimately undertaken over a two-year period by Vern Myslichuk after he purchased it in 2012. The Devonshire Lodge was designated under the Ontario Heritage Act in 2008.

Photograph credit: Chris Woodrich

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