Dead Man's Penny

The Memorial Plaque was issued after the First World War to the next-of-kin of all British Empire service personnel who were killed as a result of the war. The plaques (which could be described as large plaquettes) about 120 mm (4.7 in) in diameter, were cast in bronze, and came to be known as the Dead Man's Penny, Death Penny, or Widow's Penny because of the superficial similarity to the much smaller penny coin (which had a diameter of only 30.86 mm (1.215 in)). 1,355,000 plaques were issued, which used a total of 450 tons of bronze, and continued to be issued into the 1930s to commemorate people who died as a consequence of the war. With so many produced, they are very common on the UK art market. In 2025 an example commemorating a male typically fetches around £50 at auction, but the much less common examples for women cost many times that.