Now we examine the images of the date area of halfpennies from 1920 to 1923. The 2 on the 1920 looks like that on the 1923 but the 1921 and 1922 are different. (There are possibly date variations of the 1921 and 1922 but even so the 1921 and 1922 halfpennies invariably have almost no rim, whereas the 1923 has strong rims).
This leaves us in the position where by using the 2 or the 3 in the date and the base of the lettering we can readily differentiate between the 1923 and all but the 1920 and 1929. There is still one feature that appears to be unique to the 1923 halfpenny. If you look very carefully you can see a faint die crack extending from the base of the 2 towards the 9. This appears on halfpennies produced by both working dies. Unfortunately it may not be visible on low grade specimens.
Finally, the myth that all 1923 halfpennies have obverse die cracks is just that - a myth. One of the two obverse dies was perfect and the early strikes show no die cracks.
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Special thank to Phil Graney for providing scans of the 1933 halfpenny.