The English three halfpence, a silver coin worth d, was introduced in 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 silver content. The obverse shows a left-facing bust of the queen, with a rose behind her, with the legend <small>E D G ROSA SINE SPINA</small> â Elizabeth by the grace of God a rose without a thorn â while the reverse shows the royal arms with the date above the arms and a mintmark at the beginning of the legend <small>CIVITAS LONDON</small> â City of London, the Tower Mint. It was worth shilling, or pound sterling.
The three-halfpence coin closely resembles the three-farthing coin and the thruppence coin, which differed only in the diameter. This is in an unclipped coin, compared to for the three-farthings, and for the thruppence (except 1561, which was ).
No three-halfpences were produced after 1582, probably because under both James I and Charles I large quantities of halfpennies and farthings were produced.