We carry a comprehensive range of British
and World coins.
Please visit our Central London shop where
a wide selection of Coins, Banknotes and Medals is always on show.
All but the very earliest British coins
feature a profile of the current monarch’s head. The direction in which they
face changes with each successive monarch, a pattern that began with
the Stuarts.
For the Tudors and pre-Restoration Stuarts,
both left and right-facing portrait images were minted within the reign of a
single monarch. In the Middle Ages, portrait images tended to be full face.
From a very early date, British coins have
been inscribed with the name of the ruler of the kingdom in which they were
produced, and a longer or shorter title, always in Latin; among the earliest
distinctive English coins are the silver pennies of Offa of Mercia, which
were inscribed with the legend OFFA REX, “King Offa”.
The English silver penny was
derived from another silver coin, the sceat, of 20 troy grains
weight, which was in general circulation in Europe during the Middle Ages.
In the 12th century, Henry II
established the sterling silver standard for English coinage, of
92.5% silver and 7.5% copper, replacing the earlier use of fine
silver in the Middle Ages.
The coinage reform of 1816 set up
a weight/value ratio and physical sizes for silver coins. Silver was eliminated
from coins, except Maundy coins, in 1947.
English Hammered
Hammered coinage is the most common
form of coins produced since the invention of coins in the first
millennium BC until the early modern period of ca. the 15th–17th centuries,
contrasting to the very rare cast coinage and the later
developed milled coinage.
Hammered coins were produced by placing a
blank piece of metal (a planchet or flan) of the correct weight
between two dies, and then striking the upper die with a hammer to produce
the required image on both sides.
The planchet was usually cast from a mold.
The bottom die (sometimes called the anvil die) was usually counter sunk
in a log or other sturdy surface and was called a pile. One of the minters
held the die for the other side (called the trussel), in his hand while it
was struck either by himself or an assistant.
Anglo Saxon – Charles II Hammered
period, Gold, Silver and Copper issues
British Milled
Milled coinage (also known
as machine-struck coinage) is used to describe coins which are produced by
some form of machine, rather than by manually hammering coin blanks between two
dies (hammered coinage) or casting coins from dies.
The earliest machine known for producing
coins is the screw press, invented by Leonardo da Vinci in the
15th century, powered by a water mill.
With the arrival of machine-driven and
struck coins also came new technology and techniques for stamping the coin’s
edge with a reeded or milled edge or impressed with designs. The presence of
reeding shows that the coin’s edge has not been shaved or clipped.
The earliest milled coins produced in
England date from the early 1560s, but milled coinage did not entirely replace
hammered coinage until 1662.
Charles II Milled – to Pre-Decimal issues
. Gold, Silver and Copper/Bronze denominations, including Five
Guineas/Five Pounds, Guineas, Sovereigns, Crowns, Half Crowns, Shillings,
Pennies, and fractions. Pre-decimal and Maundy sets.
British Decimal
The standard
circulating coinage of the United Kingdom is denominated
in pounds sterling (symbol “£”), and, since the introduction of
the two-pound coin in 1998, ranges in value from one
penny to two pounds.
Since decimalisation, on 15 February
1971, the pound has been divided into 100 (new) pence.
From the 16th century until decimalisation,
the pound was divided into 20 shillings, each of 12 (old) pence. British
coins are minted by the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, Wales. The
Royal Mint also commissions the coins’ designs.
As of 30 March 2010, there were an
estimated 28 billion coins circulating in the United Kingdom.
The first decimal coins were circulated in
1968. These were the five pence (5p) and ten pence (10p), and had values of one
shilling (1/-) and two shillings (2/-), respectively, under the
pre-decimal £sd system. The decimal coins are minted
in copper-plated steel (previously bronze), nickel-plated steel,
cupro-nickel and nickel-brass.
The two-pound coin is bimetallic. The coins
are discs, except for the twenty pence and fifty-pence pieces, both of which
are heptagonal curve of constant width.
All the circulating coins have an effigy
of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse, and various national and
regional designs, and the denomination, on the reverse.
The circulating coins, excepting the
two-pound coin, were redesigned in 2008, keeping the sizes and compositions
unchanged, but introducing reverse designs that each depict a part of
the Royal Shield of Arms and form the whole shield when they are
placed together in the appropriate arrangement.
The exception, the 2008 one-pound coin,
depicts the entire shield of arms on the reverse. All current coins carry
a Latin inscription whose full form is ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA
REGINA FIDEI DEFENSOR, meaning “Elizabeth II, by the grace of God, Queen
and Defender of the Faith”.
All UK Decimal issues 1971 – date,
including Yearly Proof/Uncirculated Sets, Gold Silver Issues and Sets
In addition to the circulating coinage, the
UK also mints commemorative decimal coins (crowns) in the denomination of five
pounds (previously 25p).
Ceremonial Maundy money and
bullion coinage of gold sovereigns, half sovereigns, and gold and
silver Britannia coins are also produced.
Some territories outside the United
Kingdom, that use the pound sterling, produce their own coinage, with the same
denominations and specifications as the UK coinage but local designs.
British Commemorative World Coins
North/South American, European, British
Colonial, Asian issues
