A man with a mania for halfpennies has just died in Westbury (Wilts) Workhouse, where he had been an inmate for 68 years. Known to the outside world by the name of “Topsy,” the old man (he was 81 years of age) was wont for years to stand at the workhouse gate and salute passers-by with a have you got a ha’penny ?” Shown a sixpence and a halfpenny, he would always choose the latter, scorning all other coins. A wreath bought with halfpennies “Topsy” had collected was placed on the coffin at his funeral, and a friend dropped a halfpenny into the open grate.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HPGAZ19231015.2.18
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Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4614, 15 October 1923, Page 4
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104Untitled Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4614, 15 October 1923, Page 4
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