For more than two thousand years now, coins have been intrinsic to the story of this nation; economically, symbolically and as artefacts that bind us through geological time. The story of British coinage, in brief:
Ancient Beginnings
The Celtic tribes used the first coinage in Britain in about 100BC. These tokens were similar to Greek and Roman models, coining in gold as well as silver plus bronze. Their more sophisticated Roman coinage system effectively became a standardised currency across the province when the Romans invaded in AD 43.
Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Innovations
When the Romans left, Anglo-Saxon kings started minting their own coins - most famously the silver penny. The eighth century saw the introduction of the penny into wider English currency, with mints operating in a number of towns throughout England. The Norman Conquest in 1066 introduced the biggest changes offering standardisation with royal portraits pictured on coins.
The Tudor and Stuart Eras
The 16th and the 18th centuries witnessed vast changes. The gold sovereign was introduced by Henry VII, and milled (machine-made) coins were first struck during Elizabeth I’s reign to make profitable domestic production of the Tudor coinage more efficient. Emergency coinage and regional minting were hallmarks of the Civil War period.
Modernisation and Decimalisation
The Industrial Revolution saw a transformation in minting technology and the way of producing coins, as more advanced machinery were utilised while copper-extracted coins begun to be used at the mass level.
The gold standard entered into use in 1816 with the Great Recoinage (which also included the introduction of an iconic new sovereign and half-sovereign coin). For Coin Valuers UK, visit https://www.gmcoins.co.uk/
A major change came in 1971 with decimalisation, replacing pounds shilling and pence at the rate of up to eight half pennies per penny by a more convenient multiple system based on 100 new pence = one pound. This modernised UK currency and the coins which we use today.
Today’s Coinage
British coins are struck for the British public by The Royal Mint in Llantrisant on behalf of Her Majesty’s Treasury. They have familiar denominations such as one penny, five pence, ten pence twenty to fifty and from there £1 and £2 which usually celebrate national heritage or important occasions. Commemorative issues, rare mint errors or coins from every era are ones that keen collectors are keeping their eye out for.
As we are surrounded by coins almost daily — from Iron Age gold staters to the latest commemorative £2 pieces, those tiny metal discs tell a story not just of our currency but also serve as windows into our past.
