1984: The half-penny coin gets the shove. When a coin costs more to mint than its face value, its days are bound to be numbered. #OnThisDay: 1984 Chancellor Nigel Lawson announced that the tiny half-penny coin would cease to be legal tender by the end of the year. The coin was largely unloved but would be missed by a generation of children when they found that some of their pick-n-mix sweets had doubled in price. Clip taken from News, originally broadcast on BBC One, 1 February 1984. | BBC Archi