The British halfpenny coin was worth 1/480th of a pound sterling

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

. At first in its 700 year history it was made from silver but as the value of silver increased, the coin was made from base metals. It was finally abandoned in 1969 as part of the process of decimalising the British currency. A halfpenny, colloquially written ha'penny, was pronounced ˈheɪpəni ; 1½d was spoken as a penny ha'penny əˈpɛniˈheɪpni or three ha'pence θriːˈheɪpəns.

It was long considered that the first halfpenny coins were produced in the reign of King Edward I

Edward I of England

Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...

 (1272–1307), with earlier requirements for small change being provided by "cut coinage"; that is, pennies cut into halves or quarters, usually along the cross which formed a prominent part of the reverse of the coin.