The Original Pound

     The word pound, as in our currency, comes from a pound of Stirling Silver. In the 17th cent, particularly the early part, our currency was known as a Libra, especially when written down. There were many ways of writing this down, Libra, Li and finally the £ sign itself, as the word contracted the letter I was eventually crossed over the upright part of the capital L to give the present sign.

     Libra is itself a Latin word for balance, when our currency was first formulated twenty shillings were made out of a pound of Sterling Silver, if the pound of Stirling Silver was placed on one end of a balance scales and 20 shillings on the other end and they will balance each other. Hence 20 shillings equal a Pound or Libra. If they put 12 pennies on one end of a balance scale and 1 shilling on the other and they will also balance out.

     Shilling is from a Germanic word Skillingaz, the slash sign 3/- used to denote the shilling is known the “shilling mark” also known as a ‘solidus’ and has links with Roman coins of a similar name. Austria or Osterreich as it would have been know at the time, had the Schilling as it’s currency till the Euro came along.

     Penny is also from a Germanic word Pfenning, and Germany or Deutschland used to have the Pfennig in it’s currency until the Euro, in the US and Canada it is still used as part of their currency for a cent.

     Farthing comes from an old English word, Feorthing meaning a Fourth thing. It represents the value of one quarter of a penny, unlike the previous coins it is not weight but value that the Farthing represents, one bronze Farthing is equal to the value of one quarter of the value of the silver in a penny.

     As time progressed the true value of the Libra or pound became reduced as consecutive rulers and governments realised that it was cheaper to mint lower value coins, Stirling Silver is 92.5% pure silver by the year 1300 the amount of silver in 20 shillings was down to 12 ounces or 75% of it’s original value. By 1500 this was down to just under 7 ounces or 44% of its original value. This reduction had a knock on effect to all lower coinage. Other metals were added to the silver until it went out altogether, this country went off using silver as Standard in 1821, in 1919 was a major change when silver was reduced to about 12% and then in 1947 it was removed altogether, notice that these two dates were after major wars.

     There were no pound coins until 1489, there were other coins in England other than those mentioned above, the Mark about 160 to the pound for instance plus many and various gold coins, the noble equal to 10/- and the Sovereign about 30/- many others such as Crowns, Half Crowns, Angels, Ryals and Groats could make up a whole new subject.

 

    Values

     The smallest denomination is a farthing (not pictured). Next is the most common small change coin of the period, a halfpenny. Then comes the penny.

     Two farthings equal a halfpenny and two halfpence equal one penny.
Other denominations produced were the half-groat or tuppence worth two pence, the threepence worth three pence, the groat, worth four pence and the sixpence, worth six pence.
The shilling, equal to twelve pence, becomes the common base for the larger denominations.

     A crown (not pictured) equals five shillings. Situated between these two units is the half crown equal to two shillings and six pence.
The next higher basic unit is the pound, which equals twenty shillings (or four crowns, or 240d).

     As an aside during the reign of Charles II, the guinea was introduced as the primary gold coin, with a value of twenty-one shillings.

     Minting Coins

     Up until 1649 coins were hammer struck rather than milled, with several denominations remaining from the Tudor era. Small copper change was supplemented by privately minted trade tokens in halfpenny and farthing sizes.

     Milled coinage, that is, high quality coins of uniform size and shape produced on a press using finely milled blank planchets, were produced on a limited basis by Oliver Cromwell during the Commonwealth (1649-1660). Under Charles II milled coin production greatly expanded and several coin denominations were revised. In fact, for several denominations Charles II produced the last hammered version of a particular coin, during 1660-1662, as well as the first milled version of the coin, during the later 1660's.

 

    Copper coins of the seventeenth century

     On Thursday August 1, 1672, Charles II demonetized tokens and announced the government would begin making copper small change coins in a proclamation entitled "A Proclamation for making currant His Majesty's Farthings and Half-pence of Copper, and forbidding all others to be used"
 

     For centuries the crown had produced and continued to mint silver pennies, shillings and crowns, but they had never issued coppers. With the change from hammer coinage to the use of the screw press the king hoped to be able to profitably make a sufficient number of standardized small change coppers for the country. The first halfpence were to be produced at 40 to the pound avoirdupois or about 175 grains of copper per coin, with the farthing being proportional, which meant the copper content was worth about half the face value of the coin. As such, these coppers were the first royal coinage to have an intrinsic value less than their face value. For this reason they were technically considered to be tokens rather than coins and so were declared to be legal tender only in amounts of six pence or less. No one was obligated to accept more than twelve halfpence per transaction. Further, the minting of coppers was contracted by special arrangement with the mintmaster, as the production of silver and gold coins was considered to be the primary work of the royal mint.


     Charles II first produced copper halfpence and farthings in 1672. Minting began on August 5th with the production of farthings on four presses. A fifth press was used for halfpence but production of those coins did not begin until after Christmas. Interestingly, Charles displayed a bust right (that is, a right profile) on all his gold and silver coins but used a bust left on his coppers. He produced copper halfpence dated 1672, 1673 and 1675 and copper farthings dated 1672-1675 and 1679. In order to produce these coins the mint need blank planchets of the proper size and weight. However they did not have the capability of producing the rolled sheets of copper from which the blanks would be cut out. Therefore the mint was forced to import finished planchets.
 

     The initial run of coppers was produced at 40 halfpence to the pound, with farthings proportional. However, Cronstrom had contracted to provide the copper metal at 14.5d per pound but he discovered there was a Swedish export tariff of 2.5d per pound, raising the price to 17d a pound. The Mint would not revise the contracted price for the first shipment but they did agree to pay the increase for subsequent shipments.
 

     Hoping to assist the ailing British tin industry as well as obtaining a higher minting profit for himself, Charles began minting tin farthings. A square plug of copper was added to the centre as an anti counterfeiting measure. The tin farthings were produced from 1684 through 1685


     James II started the production of a plugged tin halfpenny in 1685 and continued production through 1687. During his reign the warrant to mint tin coins was renewed by Duncome, Hoare and Neale on March 11, 1686. Tin was a much less expensive metal than copper so that the intrinsic value of these coins was far lower. This yielded higher minting profits for the king, but the low intrinsic value turned public opinion against the coins. In order to make these tin coins more acceptable James returned to the heavier weight of 40 halfpence to the pound. As tin was cheap and readily assessable, a number of counterfeit halfpence appeared in circulation. James used a bust left for his gold and silver coins but like Charles used the opposite profile on his halfpence and farthings, which displayed a bust right.

     William and Mary (1688-1694) continued the production of tin halfpence and farthings with copper plugs from 1689-1692 but lowered the weight to 42 halfpence to the pound. In 1691 the warrant to mint the tin coins was renewed by James Hoare in partnership with Andrew Corbett and Thomas Povey. By this time there were serious discussions about abandoning the tin coinage. Although minting profits were considerably higher, the effort had not revived the tin industry. Additionally, there was increased public pressure to stop the tin coins due to their low intrinsic value and the number of counterfeits that were appearing. Counterfeits especially hurt the poor, in that anyone who unwittingly accepted one might not be able to pass it on and therefore would get stuck with a worthless coin. Further it has been suggested by some modern numismatists that it became apparent tin was a poor metal for coinage as it did not last as long as copper due to corrosion.


     In 1693 the monarchs reinstituted copper farthings and in 1694 produced copper halfpence and farthings. An act of April 17, 1694 stopped all production of tin coins and offered to exchange the less valuable tin coins for new copper coins. Within a month, by May 16, 1694, the government had received £40,000 in tin coins from this exchange, which was over half of the entire tin production of £65,000.


     With the renewed production of copper coins a new arrangement was tried whereby the minting of coppers was contracted out to a private company working at the royal mint. In the past the mintmaster had contracted small change production, but for the most part, the contractors were salaried, so that profits went to the king. Now the entire operation was licensed to a partnership. They would sustain any loss or reap any profit from the enterprise. Under the terms of this warrant (17th century legal term for contract) the blank planchets were to be produced at the mint. This meant the contractors were to purchase rolled sheets of copper in the required thickness and then cut out blanks of the proper diameter.

     During this period a large number of coppers were produced but of poorer quality workmanship. This poor quality was due to the poor production techniques and to the hiring of less skilled workman and diecutters to assist with the large production quotas. The authorized weight remained 42 halfpence to the pound but the actual coins were often much lighter. William and Mary displayed both of their profiles on their coins, using the bust right for all denominations. Such a large quantity of copper halfpence (1695-1701) and farthings (1695-1700) were produced during this period there was no need for additional coppers to be minted during the reign of Queen Anne

 

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