Shove Ha'penny
The famous English pub game in which players attempt to shove old English ha'penny coins up a board so that they fall between the horizontal lines. At first glance, it appears simple but you can bet your bottom farthing that the pub locals will beat you every time...
Slate Board
Many
people believe that the best material for a Shove Ha'penny board is Slate
and that's what this board is made from.
Designed for pub or home use with a nautical theme, the board comes with some natural chalk, instructions and real old English ha'pennies that have been smoothed on one side to reduce friction.
The smooth 19mm solid slate measures approximately 43 x 30 cm and is very heavy so should not move around during play. There are 8 beds instead of the more typical 9 separated by machine-cut lines. To prevent coins sliding off the top of the board, there is a header plate made from solid Brass.
Warning: While the quality of the board surface is excellent, the ha'pennies supplied by the manufacturer are only "linished", i.e. a rough flat surface and sometimes of poor quality. So they don't look very nice nor run as smoothly as our own mirror-finish coins. We have to supply the board with the coins that the manufacture supplies and one option would be to sand and/or polish these coins yourself. But for your convenience, we offer mirror-finish coins separately, if you wish, see below.
We recommend placing some material between the board and
your table to protect your table from being scratched by the heavy board.
You will need to sprinkle a little talcum power or french chalk powder
onto the slate before play.
Change to $  Change to  |
UK pounds (ex.VAT) |
Pounds (incl. VAT) |
Typical ETA in wkg days |
Add to basket |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Slate Shove Ha'penny |
£46.00 | £52.90 | 2 + transit time | ||
For an immediate quote and ETA, add to the basket & select your location. |
Ha'pennies
Due
popular demand, we have made sets of real old English ha'pennies available.
The smoothed coins are better for slate boards and should be used with talcum or french chalk powder.
NOTE: The old English ha'pennies are used - they may vary in quality and some look decidedly old.
| Change to $ Change to |
UK pounds (ex.VAT) |
Pounds (incl. VAT) |
Typical ETA in wkg days |
Add to basket |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Set of 5 old English Ha'pennies smoothed (tails side visible) |
£9.48 | £10.90 | 2 + transit time | ||
Set of 5 old English Ha'pennies smoothed (heads side visible) |
£9.48 | £10.90 | 2 + transit time | ||
For an immediate quote and ETA, add to the basket & select your location. |
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The Origins of Sjoelbak, Shuffleboard and Shove Ha'penny
The original English ancestor of most of the games involving shoving discs of some sort on a table was called Shovelboard. Popular in Tudor times, Shovelboard was played by the English upper classes on enormous narrow tables as long as 30 feet (9 metres). Players shoved metal weights down the tables, attempting to get them as near to the other end of the table without falling off.
By the 1800's Shovelboard had been abandoned by the aristocracy and nowadays, Shovelboard tables are confined to museums in England but three major derivatives still survive. In Holland, the game of Sjoelbak came about sometime prior to 1900 and is still big in Holland, Belgium and Germany. In America, Shuffleboard, became quite popular during the early 1900's in an outdoor format which still survives. A smaller table version is now reasonably common in American bars and is very similar to the original Shovelboard.
In England, at a much earlier date during the 15th century, an indoor version of Shovelboard for play in taverns developed called Shove Groat. The game evolved through Slide-thrift and Push-penny and eventually Shove Ha'penny came into existence around 1840. It would originally have been played on any flat surface that could have the requisite lines inscribed on it but the official board these days should be made of slate or hardwood with indented lines defining the beds. In all such games, players take turns to push coins up a board with horizontal lines across it. The areas between each pair of horizontal lines are called a "beds" and the objective is to push the coins so that they land squarely in the beds without touching the horizontal lines. To win, a player needs to get a coin in each bed 3 times which is no easy task for the beds furthest away from the front of the board.
You can learn more about the History of Shovelboard, Sjoelbak and Shove Ha'penny from The Online Guide to Traditional Games.