Brief Summary…

* 1937 – 1956 Farthing ‘Jenny Wren’ Coin
* Choice of years depending on availability.
* Hand cut out with traditional jewellers piercing saw
* Optional Chain: Sterling Silver. Recommend : Finesse / Flourish
* Hairy Growler Shepherd’s Crook Necklace Catch: Sterling Silver
* Size : 20mm diameter
* Symbolism : Tenderness, Curiosity, Tradition, British culture & history, Bird of Kings, luck, happiness, and Kingship!
* Handcrafted & Recycled in Cambridge
* Made with love.

 

A little more detail…

Jenny Wren

The Little British Wren, Released from an Original 1937-1956 Farthing

Sometimes the loveliest design is already hiding inside the coin.

This is one of those pieces.

Between 1937 and 1956, the British farthing carried a tiny wren on its reverse.

One of Britain’s smallest birds.

On one of Britain’s smallest coins.

For my Jenny Wren necklace, I take an original farthing and carefully pierce away the background surrounding the bird.

The wren remains.

The date remains.

The word FARTHING remains.

The old beaded edge remains.

But suddenly there is light around the bird.

The wren has been sitting inside the coin for decades. I simply let her out.

A Little Bird from Another Britain

The wren first appeared on the British farthing in 1937.

Until then, Britannia had occupied the reverse of the coin.

The new wren design was the work of sculptor and medallist Harold Wilson Parker and represented a striking move away from the heraldic imagery traditionally associated with British coinage.

It was a wonderfully simple idea.

A familiar British bird.

Small enough to disappear into a hedge.

Placed upon a coin so small that it too could almost disappear in the palm of your hand.

The design remained on the farthing until production of the denomination ended in 1956.

For twenty years, the little wren travelled around Britain in people’s pockets.

Choose Your Year

Jenny Wren can be made from an original British farthing dated between 1937 and 1956, subject to the availability and suitability of individual coins.

That makes this little necklace particularly lovely when there is a year that matters.

A birth year.

A parent’s birth year.

A grandparent’s year.

An anniversary.

A year associated with someone you remember.

Or simply a date that catches your imagination.

And if no particular year matters, that is perfectly fine too.

You are allowed to choose an old coin simply because you love the little bird sitting inside it.

The Date Was Already There

This is one of the things that makes old coin jewellery so different from ordinary personalised jewellery.

I do not take a newly made pendant and engrave your chosen year onto it.

The date was struck into this coin when it was made.

A 1940 farthing really comes from 1940.

A 1947 farthing really comes from 1947.

A 1954 farthing really comes from 1954.

The metal itself has travelled from that year to the present day.

You are not simply choosing a date. You are choosing a small surviving object from that year.

The Wren Was Already There Too

I cannot really take credit for the most important part of this design.

The bird is Harold Wilson Parker’s.

And she has been sitting patiently inside the bronze for all these years.

My part begins by looking at the original coin and deciding what can disappear without losing what makes the farthing so recognisable.

I carefully remove the bronze surrounding the wren while preserving the important elements of the old coin.

The original bird.

The original date.

The FARTHING lettering.

The beaded border.

The result is not a new wren copied onto an old coin.

It is the original wren from the original farthing.

One of Britain’s Smallest Birds

Wrens are easy to underestimate.

They are tiny, brown and often glimpsed for only a moment as they disappear into a hedge or tangle of undergrowth.

Then they sing.

And suddenly something extraordinarily small seems capable of filling the entire garden.

That contrast is part of their charm.

Small body.

Enormous voice.

Quick.

Curious.

Resilient.

Always busy somewhere among the leaves.

The wren has never needed to be large to make itself noticed.

The King of the Birds

For such a tiny creature, the wren carries a surprisingly large collection of folklore.

One of the oldest stories tells how the birds competed to discover which should become their king.

The eagle flew higher than all the others and believed the contest won.

But the little wren had hidden among its feathers.

When the exhausted eagle could climb no higher, the wren emerged and flew just a little higher still.

The smallest bird had outwitted the greatest.

Versions of the tale travelled across Europe, helping to give the wren its curious reputation as the King of the Birds.

It is a wonderful little piece of folklore.

Never mistake smallness for insignificance.

A Bird Wrapped in Folklore

The wren appears again and again in old European and British and Irish traditions.

It has been associated with cleverness, kingship, luck, divination, winter customs and the turning of the year.

Some traditions are joyful.

Others are considerably darker.

That is often the way with old folklore.

Stories change as they travel between villages, generations and countries.

What survives is the sense that this tiny bird somehow mattered.

It was noticed.

Remembered.

Given stories.

And eventually Britain put it on a coin.

A Farthing for Your Thoughts

The farthing itself has an even longer story.

Its name comes from an old word meaning a fourth part.

A farthing was worth one quarter of an old penny.

By the twentieth century it represented an almost impossibly small amount of money by modern standards.

But once it could buy something.

Children carried them.

Shopkeepers counted them.

They disappeared into purses, pockets and tills.

Then prices changed.

Britain changed.

And eventually the tiny farthing no longer made economic sense.

Minting ended in 1956 and the coin finally ceased to be legal tender at the end of 1960.

The farthing became worthless as currency.

Which, to me, makes it a particularly satisfying thing to turn into something worth keeping.

From Currency to Wren

I do not melt the farthing down.

If I did, nearly everything interesting about it would disappear.

Instead, I work directly within the original coin.

Tiny entry holes are drilled into the areas surrounding the bird.

A very fine jeweller’s piercing saw blade is threaded through one of those openings.

The background is then removed slowly by hand.

One tiny section at a time.

The solid copper begins to open.

Light appears around the bird.

The silhouette becomes stronger.

And gradually the little wren that was once part of the surface of a coin becomes a piece of jewellery.

The bird is not added to the farthing. It is released from it.

Made Slowly at the Hairy Growler Bench

There is not much room for error inside a 20mm coin.

The bird’s legs are tiny.

The beak is fine.

The original lettering needs to remain connected.

The date needs to survive.

The rim needs to hold everything together.

So each farthing is pierced individually using traditional hand tools and techniques.

Once the cutting is complete, the edges are carefully filed and refined.

The little wren is cleaned and finished.

The old copper is polished without trying to erase the decades it has already lived through.

Small coin. Small saw. A surprising amount of work.

Let an Old Coin Look Old

A farthing from 1937 has had a very different life from one dated 1956.

Even two coins from exactly the same year may look completely different.

One may have spent decades safely tucked away in a drawer.

Another may have circulated heavily before somebody decided to keep it.

There may be scratches.

Darkened copper.

Softened lettering.

Tiny knocks around the edge.

Areas polished smooth by generations of fingers.

I retain that character wherever possible.

These are not imperfections I need to manufacture.

Time has already done that work for me.

A Birth Year Gift with a Real Past

The Jenny Wren has become one of those pieces people often choose for significant birthdays.

And I understand why.

There is something rather different about giving someone a coin that actually existed in the year they were born.

The person began their journey.

The farthing began another.

For decades they travelled separately.

Then eventually one old coin finds its way to my bench.

I release the little bird from inside it.

And the two stories finally meet.

A small piece of the year their story began.

Not Just for Birthdays

Of course, you do not need a significant birthday to wear a wren.

Perhaps your name is Jenny.

Perhaps somebody has always called you Jenny Wren.

Perhaps wrens remind you of a parent or grandparent.

Perhaps you are a birdwatcher.

Perhaps there is one that visits your garden.

Perhaps you simply love British wildlife.

Or perhaps, like me, you find something rather appealing about a tiny bird with a ridiculously loud voice and a folklore reputation far larger than itself.

Not every piece of jewellery needs an occasion. Sometimes the bird is reason enough.

1937 to 1956

These twenty dates contain an extraordinary amount of British history.

The years before the Second World War.

The war itself.

Victory.

Post-war Britain.

The final years of George VI.

The beginning of the reign of Elizabeth II.

And throughout all of it, the little wren remained on the farthing.

That means choosing a year can connect the necklace not only to a person, but to a particular moment in British history.

Every date carries a different story.

1937: The First Wren

For collectors and lovers of old coins, 1937 has a special significance.

It was the first year the wren appeared on the circulating British farthing.

Choose a 1937 coin and you are choosing the beginning of the wren’s twenty-year journey through British pockets.

The first little wren.

1956: The Last Wren

And at the other end of the story sits 1956.

The final year.

After 1956, no more British farthings were minted for circulation.

For someone born in that year, the coincidence is particularly lovely.

They are not simply sharing their birth year with an old coin.

They share it with the last generation of British wren farthings.

Make Your Jenny Wren Your Own

Choose the year that matters to you, subject to the old coins I have available.

The pendant can be supplied on its own or paired with one of my sterling silver necklace chains.

With suitable silver chain options, you can also add one of my little symbolic charms.

A heart.

A star.

A moon.

An acorn.

An oak leaf.

A feather.

Or another small detail that gives the necklace an additional layer of personal meaning.

The farthing brings its history.

You decide what the next part of its story means.

Product Details

• Original Hairy Growler Jenny Wren farthing necklace
• Handcrafted from a genuine British wren farthing
• Choice of dates from 1937 to 1956, subject to availability and suitability of individual coins
• 1937 was the first year of the wren farthing design
• 1956 was the final year farthings were minted in Britain
• Original Harold Wilson Parker wren design retained
• Original coin date retained
• Original FARTHING lettering retained within the design
• Original beaded coin edge retained
• Bronze farthing approximately 20mm diameter
• Traditionally hand pierced using a fine jeweller’s saw
• Carefully filed, refined and polished by hand
• Historic wear, colour and character retained where appropriate
• Particularly suitable for birth-year and milestone birthday gifts
• Optional sterling silver necklace chains
• Finesse and Flourish silver chains particularly recommended
• Hairy Growler handmade sterling silver Shepherd’s Crook catch with silver chain options
• Optional small symbolic charm available with suitable necklace choices
• Symbolism associated with the wren includes cleverness, resilience, joy, renewal and kingship
• Individually handcrafted from recycled materials at the Hairy Growler bench in Cambridge, England
• Every original farthing carries different marks from its previous life, making every finished Jenny Wren unique

A Little Piece of British History

Once, somebody could spend this coin.

Perhaps it bought a newspaper.

Perhaps sweets.

Perhaps it was change handed across the counter of a little shop that disappeared decades ago.

We will never know.

Eventually the farthing stopped being money.

But the wren remained.

Years passed.

The bronze darkened.

The edges softened.

The world around it changed enormously.

Then the coin arrived at my bench.

I drilled a tiny hole.

Threaded through a saw.

And began cutting.

Piece by piece, the background disappeared.

Until finally there she was.

Jenny Wren.

A little bird with a very long story.

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