Pre Decimal Pennys With Blank On One Side

Granta, welcome to the forum. Modern coinage uses 2 dies that are pressed together with tons of force to produce the coins. with this process there is only 1 way a uni-face coin could actually be created, one of the 2 dies needs to have a coin stuck in it, while another coin blank is loaded, and pressed.

If this happens the one side is made fine like yours, however the opposite side will have a ghost impression of the coin stuck in the other die. The coin is usually not perfectly circular because of this process.

I would say that your 4 coins have all been shaved down and then circulated.

Hello and welcome.

As ace-ftw said, it is physically impossible to create a coin that has been struck only on one side. Just like you can't clap with only one hand. Your coin used to be perfectly normal, and the reverses have been ground away from them some time afterwards. This is clear by the way the metal on the flat side is still coppery red, while the remaining obverses are oxidized to dull brown.

I would suspect that coins like this have been shaped for the purpose of playing a British pub game called "shove ha'penny". You're missing one coin to make a full game set. Given that there's a different monarch on each coin, I suspect the "missing" coin was one of queen Victoria.