Although I was born in 1939, (just 6 weeks before the war started. Imagine how my parents must have felt!) I can’t remember ever spending farthings. What with sweet rationing, and my family being ‘hard-up’ I didn’t get to buy my own sweets very often. I also thought that they had gone out of circulation much earlier, but I do remember doing sums with them in. Decimalisation has made sums so easy now.
My mum never threw away the buttons from worn-out garments, and I followed on the tradition. I had a big sweet jar almost full, and in a mad moment gave it away, some years ago. I have always regretted it. Some of the buttons must have been almost 100 years old. Mother-of-Pearl, fancy glass and metal ones, and some very pretty ones from childrens’s clothes. Even ladybirds from an old Ladybird dressing-gown. (Is the Ladybird company still around?)
Considering how expensive buttons are now, they were probably worth quite a bit. I should have carded them all up and sold them on EBay!