The BLS Coin Collectors Club

On hearing the word inflation, most people want to either change the subject, or take the opportunity to rant about whichever political figure they blame for contemporary economic woes. However, to the numismatist, inflation takes on an altogether different meaning. In fact, it is in large part due to inflation that coinage underwent radical shifts between the early 17th century and the 1940s, and in many ways continues to change today.

There are many ways in which governments may choose to fight inflation, but only three are directly relevant to numismatics.

The first method is the debasement of the precious metals that go into making the coinage of the day. This isn’t relevant today because almost all, if not all, circulating coins are made of base metals like copper, nickel and steel, but in the past monarchs and Mints have made frequent use of debasement, especially of silver coinage. This most notably took place during the later reign of Henry VIII, whose last silver issues were so debased with copper that the thin veneer of silver often wore off the king’s portrait after circulation, giving rise to the nickname “Old Coppernose” for his shillings and sixpences.

Secondly, governments may choose to switch the metals from which coins are made to ones that are cheaper and more readily available. A good example of this was the replacement of silver (which had already been debased to 50% fineness in 1920) with a copper and nickel alloy, cupro-nickel, in the UK’s circulating coinage in 1947, owing to the nation’s need to repay the silver lent to it by the US during World War II. We will see another example of this as this little history progresses.

Thirdly, and perhaps most relevant to the early part of our story, the physical size and weight of the coinage can be reduced. We see this even today where the UK’s decimal coinage was reduced in size during the 1990s, leading to the demonetisation in 1993 of the florin, the last circulating pre-decimal coin. This of course can lead to a situation where the coins are too small to be conveniently handled!

This exact situation presented itself in England in the middle of the 17th century. For three hundred years the silver coinage of the realm had been steadily shrinking in size and weight and worst affected were the smallest denominations: the penny, halfpenny and farthing, all of which were vital to the kind of day to day transactions conducted across the nation. At the time, no English coins were struck from base metals, and all were generally required to hold their denomination’s exact worth in silver or gold. The situation started during the reign of Edward III; when he came to the throne in 1337, the silver penny had been struck at close to the same size and weight for nearly six hundred years, but due to the enormous cost of the early phase of the Hundred Years’ War, Edward needed revenue, badly. Taxation had squeezed out everything it could and so he turned to the coinage; by reducing the size and weight of the silver coins of the realm, Edward was able to ensure less silver was used in coin manufacture, reducing spending on the mints and increasing his revenues. Due to ongoing wars and general inflation subsequent monarchs devalued the coinage even further, until by the mid 15th century the farthing in particular (worth one quarter of a penny; the word derives from Old English feorthing meaning quarter) was so small it was very inconvenient to use and was easily lost. Due in part to the Wars of the Roses and early Tudor period English conflicts on the Continent, the prices of gold and silver began to rise. English gold coins in particular were struck in such high quality gold, far higher than their European counterparts, that the coins tended to drain out of the country and into Europe. This led to the replacement of the gold crown by a silver one in 1551; this left the realm in somewhat of a quandary as silver prices too rose: how could England, while introducing new silver coins, maintain its output, especially of the smaller denominations which were needed in vast quantities?

In fact, little was done about the situation for the remainder of the Tudor period. When James VI of Scotland ascended the throne of England as James I, however, he and his government recognised the need for something to be done. By this time it was proving impossible to even mint the silver farthing which had become prohibitively small, and so in 1613 King James authorised the production of copper tokens by private manufacturers under royal contract, to alleviate the need for farthings among the common people. This production continued under his son and successor Charles I until 1643, when it was halted by Parliament in the early stages of the English Civil War. During the conflict the Royal Mint had to be moved around between Royalist strongholds and emergency coinage was struck ad hoc in a variety of metals, sizes and even shapes (lozenge and square shaped coins are well attested in the mid 1640s).

By James I’s reign, even the silver halfpenny had become ridiculously small; the twopence or half-groat had shrunk to the size of an Edward I halfpenny; and during Charles I’s first coinage of 1625-31, the halfpenny finally shrank to the size of a child’s fingernail. Following the Civil War, the silver halfpenny was struck for the last time by the Commonwealth; Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector had silver pennies and copper farthings issued in his own name, but these coins are now extremely rare and it is possible that they were only ever struck as patterns rather than for general circulation.

Following the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 under Charles II, the silver coinage shrank to more or less the final size it would take for the next three centuries. The silver penny was still issued for general circulation but it had now shrunk to the size of the halfpenny of earlier reigns; it was no longer viable, economically or otherwise, to issue smaller denominations in silver.

As a result, in 1672 the Royal Mint issued for the first time in its history halfpennies and farthings minted in copper. These coins were the first officially issued base metal coinage, previous examples being tokens of various kinds issued by non-Royal mints around the country, and for the first time we see copper halfpennies in circulation. In 1684 and 1685 farthings were also issued in tin, in order to help boost the revenue of Cornish tin mines; these now highly scarce pieces were minted with a copper plug in the centre of the coin, while the date was inscribed on the edge of the coin along with the Latin inscription nummorum famulus – “the knave (or servant) of coins”. This may have been a reference to the farthing being the ‘lowest of the low’ when it came to England’s coinage. James II followed suit, adding the halfpenny to the tin coinage; for some years, it may have seemed as though official copper coins were off the table almost as soon as their mintage had begun. For the first four years of the reign of William III, who ruled jointly with his wife Mary II (daughter of James II) until her death in 1694, halfpennies and farthings continued to be struck in tin; in 1694, however, the last year of Mary’s life, the Mint ceased to use tin in coins, reverting to copper from then on.

The silver penny by this time had become essentially confined to Maundy issue and as such circulating small coin was limited to the two copper denominations, the silver sixpence, and older, mostly hammered, issues of groats, halfgroats and pennies. The Great Recoinage of 1696 recalled the old hammered coins and demonetised them; as the Maundy style issues are often found in circulated condition it’s possible, even likely, that they were issued as circulation coins. William continued the issue of copper coins until his death in 1701; his wife’s younger sister Anne who succeeded him on the throne, however, issued no circulating copper, the only examples of her reign known being pattern farthings minted in 1714; these rare pieces were never intended for circulation, although they may have led to more regular issues had the Queen not died in that same year, being succeeded not by her half-brother James Stuart – a Catholic – but by her second cousin George of Hanover. George, who disliked England and the English language, created a government that could run without his presence, including the office of Prime Minister. Copper coinage resumed minting during his reign, at first with the so-called “dump” coinage of 1717-19 which were struck on particularly thick flans (a flan, also sometimes called a planchet, is the disc of metal on which a coin is struck – essentially a blank coin); then, in 1719, a larger and thinner flan was used until 1724. George died in 1727 being succeeded by his son George II whose copper issues were of a more standardised type, lacking the large beaded borders of the first Hanoverian issues; these were struck in large quantities between 1729 and 1754 and are still commonly found in reasonable condition today. I myself still have a 1738 halfpenny of this reign in passable condition, a coin that has been in my personal collection for at least thirty-three years.

George II ceased striking copper in 1754, and no more was issued until 1770, ten years into his grandson George III’s long reign. These latter coins were issued for only five years before minting ceased; financial difficulties caused by the American War of Independence resulted in a dearth of silver and copper issues, while ‘emergency’ silver coins – Spanish issues overstruck with the King’s portrait – were authorised for use in the colonies. Technological progress was about to result in a sea change in the manufacture of British coins, however, and it all started with copper.

By the 1790s, the silver penny had long since ceased to be usable in circulation. The small size of the coin, combined with the fact that its silver content was now worth far more than its face value, led to it being issued only as part of Maundy sets, and this combined with the low, sporadic mintage of regular copper, led to a dearth of small change which was filled by the makers of various unofficial tokens. These are still fairly common for the years between 1770 and 1800 and were generally accepted as legal currency, although they were never officially authorised by the Crown. However, there was about to be a major change in the Crown’s attitude towards base metal coinage, and it began with the steam press.

Invented by Matthew Boulton at his Soho Mint in Birmingham, the steam press was a whole new method of producing coins. This innovation minted coins both more quickly, and to a far higher standard, than previous methods such as the mill and screw press that had been in common use for over a century. By now acutely aware of the need among the British public for small denominations, the Crown in 1796 gave Boulton a contract to produce copper coinage at the Soho Mint and in the following year the first of the resulting coins was produced.

These 1797 issues are the famous ‘Cartwheel’ coinage. While halfpennies and farthings of this issue do exist, they are patterns only; however, the first officially commissioned copper penny and twopence were minted in large numbers and these coins are still plentiful today. Magnificent to look at, they possess a wide, raised rim with the inscriptions sunk into it (this is known as incuse lettering) and the obverse features an impressive bust of the King, while the reverse shows Britannia seated with the Union Jack on her shield, holding a trident while on the horizon a ship sails. While beautiful to look at, these coins ultimately proved unpopular with the public due to their size and weight: the penny weighed a whole ounce of copper, while the twopence weighed two ounces, and this made them the heaviest circulating non-gold coins in British history to date. They all carry the date 1797 although they were also issued in 1798 and are still sought after pieces for any collector. Proofs of this issue, struck in copper, silver and gold, do exist, but are extremely rare.

Following the public reception of the Cartwheel coinage, Boulton issued in 1799 a series of halfpennies and farthings. These did not follow the raised rim design of the Cartwheel coins and did not weigh the equivalent amount in copper; as such, they were more acceptable to the public, and in 1806 and 1807 they were issued again, joined by a penny of a similar design (the twopence was never reissued and in fact no coin with the face value of two pence was issued again until decimalisation in 1971). A single 1808-dated penny exists, a proof example, but while the Royal Mint adopted Boulton’s steam-powered coining presses, moving to its Tower Hill location in 1816, the Soho Mint was not contracted to produce coins again, and no further copper was issued in George III’s reign after 1807. Likely the twin struggles of the Regency and the Napoleonic Wars were larger concerns for the government of the time.

George IV succeeded his father in 1820 after a long Regency period. While his reign would not be a long one, copper coinage was issued for every year; the first issue, from 1821-26, featured only farthings and halfpennies, but in 1825 a new second coinage was issued, featuring a more flattering portrait of the King and a redesigned Britannia on the penny and from then on, the copper penny had well and truly ‘arrived’. A penny of 1827 lives in my collection, a coin that holds some personal significance for me due to its appearance in the archives of The BLS Coin Collectors Club, and it is from here on that official minting of the penny never fully ceased. Fractional farthings were also minted in copper in fairly small quantities; these were not intended for circulation within Britain, designed only for certain overseas territories, but a fair few seem to have found their way into the British public’s change and they are still fairly plentiful today. The redesigned Britannia on the reverse of the copper coins would remain until 1860 and saw the reigns of three monarchs.

In 1860, the copper coins of the realm were issued for the last time (with the exception of an odd proof farthing of 1864 which is now extremely scarce, and the copper half- and quarter-farthings last issued in 1868). They were replaced with smaller and lighter coins of the same denominations, struck in a bronze alloy of roughly 97% copper and 3% tin. These coins were not only smaller but also harder wearing, ideal for currency that would ultimately circulate for more than a century! These new bronze coins are of course the famous ‘bun pennies’, issued from 1860 to 1894 in a bewildering array of variants as the Mint experimented with the process of wearing on the dies used to strike the coins. The design featured the Queen’s portrait with her hair tied up in a bun, while a new Britannia design decorated the reverse. While the same design would persist until 1894, the series is very complicated as large numbers of minute differences exist on both obverse and reverse dies for all the bronze issues, with one exception: the only fractional farthing ever struck in bronze, the third-farthing. This is extant for a single set of dies and features the Queen’s portrait as it appeared on the older, copper coins; it was for use only in Malta and was issued sporadically until 1885.

Complicating matters even further was the fact that for several years of this issue, some of the bronze coins were struck not at the Tower Hill mint in London but by Ralph Heaton & Sons in Birmingham. These coins, of which the 1875 mintage in particular is highly sought, were issued between 1874-76 and again in 1881-82, and while specimens in reasonable condition can be distinguished by a small ‘H’ mintmark beneath the date, this is one of the first parts of the design to disappear on worn examples. Thus only pieces with the mintmark clearly defined hold any value, although in 1876 and 1882 the coins were produced exclusively by Heaton. (There is, as often, one exception to this rule: an 1882 penny without ‘H’ mintmark does exist, but is very rare and commands a price some 500 times higher than its more common counterpart!)

The ’Jubilee’ coinage of 1887, designed to celebrate the Queen’s fiftieth year on the throne, did not extend to bronze coins; the same design introduced in 1860 continued all the way up until 1894 (with, again, one exception; a rarely found farthing of 1895 exists with the ‘bun’ style). In this the bronze coins lagged behind two changes of design: the ‘Jubilee’ coinage had been superseded by the ‘old head’ issue on gold and silver in 1893! This was perhaps yet another example of low denominations being neglected by the government, but in any case, the ‘old head’ portrait finally makes its appearance on the bronze coinage with the redesign of 1895. Here Britannia’s appearance on the reverse changes again, resembling a little more closely the copper coinage of the early part of the reign. There are few die variations in this issue, reflecting perhaps a more consistent approach to coin minting; the one major variant of interest is the ‘low tide’ reverse on the 1895 pennies, where the sea level behind Britannia’s figure is lower than on other coins of this issue. Distinguishing between normal and ‘low’ tide on a worn 1895 penny is not easy and as such they are only considered of value in decent grades of condition. Farthings were issued with a ‘dark’ finish to them between 1897 and 1901, but this makes no difference to their value and only a completist would intend on collecting both the bright and dark finish 1897 pieces; the intent was to ensure the obverse of the coins was not confused with the similarly sized gold half-sovereign.

Victoria’s long reign, the second longest in British history, ended with her death in 1901. She was succeeded by her already elderly son Edward VII who made no significant changes in the coin of the realm; his penny of 1902 again exists in ‘low’ and ‘normal’ tide variants, and a die variant in the 1903 penny results in an ‘open’ 3 on the date which is highly scarce, but otherwise his coins run much the same as his mother’s ‘old head’ issues. No proofs exist of the bronze coins; the third-farthing, for use in Malta, was issued in 1902.

And so the twentieth century began in earnest, an era of great change that would greatly affect coins as everything else. George V succeeded his father on the throne in 1910 and his first coinage was dated 1911. Bronze was issued as normal, although in 1912 the Heaton company in Birmingham was again contracted to mint pennies, and in 1918-19 both Heaton and another private Birmingham mint, the King’s Norton Metal Company, struck pennies as well. These coins are distinguished with ‘H’ or ‘KN’ mintmarks left of the date and being more recent and less heavily circulated than the Victorian examples, many of these coins are still easily distinguishable from their Tower Hill counterparts. An experimental penny was struck by King’s Norton in 1918 out of cupro-nickel instead of bronze but these coins are of the highest rarity; only a tiny handful of specimens were ever produced. The ‘H’ and ‘KN’ mintmark pennies are somewhat scarcer than those produced in London, with examples in good condition often fetching a significantly higher price; the 1919 specimens are particularly desirable.

This reign also saw the Royal Mint experiment with new die methods. Many bronze coins of Victoria’s ‘old head’ issue onwards showed a manufacturing flaw called ‘ghosting’: due to the low relief of the reverse design and the large bust of the monarch on the other side, the two sides of the coins were not evenly struck and a faint outline or ‘ghost’ of the monarch’s head was often visible on the reverse side. Attempting to remedy this, the Mint experimented with slightly modified designs for both sides of the coins from 1922 onwards, and penny production ceased in 1923-25 while this was being worked on. Modified reverses of the 1922 pennies exist but are extremely rare, while the ‘modified effigy’ variant struck in 1926-27 lasted only a short time, not resolving the issue (the 1926 examples are rather scarce, even more so than the 1919 ‘KN’ mintmark coins). Finally, the bust of the King was reduced in size for the coins from 1928 onwards and this seems to have resolved the difficulties. No Proofs were struck of the bronze coins during this reign, and in 1913 the Third-farthing was issued for Malta for the very last time; fractional farthings were never struck again. In 1934 the pennies were artificially darkened at the Mint prior to release for circulation.

Perhaps the best known coin of George V’s reign, however, is the semi-legendary 1933 penny. While no pennies were set to be issued in 1933 due to there being more than enough pennies already in circulation, sets of coins were laid beneath the foundation stones of buildings personally dedicated by the King and as these sets would be incomplete without pennies, a total of seven were struck that year. Of these, a single coin appears to have escaped into circulation, subsequently reappearing to be sold at auction for tremendous amounts of money. The 1933 penny has become legendary and is prone to forgery; 1930 and 1932 pennies are prone to being altered so that they appear to be dated 1933! A second 1933 penny was in fact stolen from its set beneath a foundation stone in the 1970s; its whereabouts are still unknown.

George V died in January 1936; as such, all his coins of that year were likely struck during the brief reign of Edward VIII. Patterns were produced, all dated 1937, for the latter’s coins but due to his abdication none were struck for circulation. However, the new, more modern designs created for Edward’s coins were largely reused for his brother George VI, and these were the final reverse designs to appear on the bronze coins of the realm prior to decimalisation. The halfpenny and farthing lost Britannia, the halfpenny instead featuring a depiction of the Golden Hind, the ship commanded by Sir Francis Drake; while the farthing showed Britain’s smallest bird, the wren, a suitable image for Britain’s smallest-value coin. Due to inflation during and after the Second World War, the farthing became all but worthless, and shortly after Elizabeth II’s accession production of these coins ceased; they were last minted in 1956 and demonetised in 1960.

Inflation had continued to push silver prices up during the course of the century and in 1920 the silver coinage was debased from 92.5% fine silver to 50% silver, 50% copper; this was exacerbated by the silver the UK had to repay to the US following the Second World War, and in 1947 the silver coins were replaced completely with a cupro-nickel alloy. With minor adjustments, this is the same metal used to mint the UK’s ‘silver’ coins up until this day; bronze would not have the same fate, being replaced by copper-plated steel in 1992.

Pennies were again artificially darkened at the Mint in the mid 1940s but aside from that no major changes were made to the coins; the title ‘Emperor of India’ was dropped from coinage after 1947. George VI died in February of 1952; it is likely that most coins of that date were minted during Elizabeth II’s reign. Only one example of a 1952 penny is known, although the halfpennies and farthings of that date are no rarer than any other dates. Elizabeth II’s first pennies, dated 1953, were produced only for Mint sets although a considerable amount managed to escape into circulation and can still be found today. The 1954 penny, however, is another of those legends of coinage: only a single specimen is known, and it was first sold at auction in 1991 for over £24,000. No further pennies were produced until 1961 although halfpennies are common for all the dates of Elizabeth II’s reign up until 1967 and as previously mentioned farthings were no longer produced after 1956.

And so we approach the end of Britain’s pre-decimal coinage. In 1965, after more than a century of on-again, off-again debate on the matter, it was decided that the UK would go decimal as of 1971. At the same time, the Royal Mint, having outgrown its headquarters at Tower Hall, was set to move to a brand new, purpose built facility at Llantrisant in Wales; both this move, and the production of Britain’s first decimal coins, the five-pence and ten-pence coins, took place in 1968. The last pre-decimal issues, including pennies and halfpennies, were dated 1967, although production at least of pennies continued until 1970 all of them bearing the date 1967 and as a result pennies dated 1967 are probably the most commonly found of all pre-decimal bronze.

While the first decimal bronze – the halfpenny, penny and twopence – are all dated 1971, it’s likely production started in 1970 to be ready for ‘decimal day’ – February 15th, 1971. Most of the pre-decimal coins, including the penny and halfpenny, would be demonetized on that date; the sixpence continued for a while to circulate as 2 ½ new pence until it was withdrawn in 1980, while the shilling and the florin circulated as five pence and ten pence respectively, alongside their decimal counterparts of the same size and weight, until the size of the decimal equivalents was reduced in the 1990s.

Thus, pre-decimal copper and bronze reaches the end of its 300 year history in 1971. The last circulating pennies and halfpennies were withdrawn on ‘decimal day’; these included coins dating back as far as 1860, more than a hundred years of circulation for the oldest specimens (this is part of the reason why ‘bun pennies’ are usually found in such poor condition!). While hundreds of millions of these coins still exist, they exist now as collectibles and curios, handed down by grandparents, sold at antique fairs and coin dealers, and held in collections worldwide. But while they still exist, the glory days of British coinage will not be forgotten.