Old coin, item from a long way back? (8)
I believe the answer is:
farthing
'old coin' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'item from a long way back?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'item' could be 'thing' (both can mean an object) and 'thing' is present in the answer.
'a' is within the answer.
'from' could be 'fr' (abbreviation) and 'fr' is found in the remaining letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for farthing that I've seen before include "It used to be one quarter of a penny" , "Former British coin" , "Smallest coin once" , "Old quarter of a penny is a remote object" , "of negligible value" .)