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The history of the penny of Great Britain and the United Kingdom from 1714 to 1901, the period in which the House of Hanover reigned, saw the transformation of the penny from a little-used small silver coin to the bronze piece recognisable to modern-day Britons. All bear the portrait of the monarch on the obverse; copper and bronze pennies have a depiction of Britannia, the female personification of Britain, on the reverse.
The British penny, a large, pre-decimal coin which continued the series of pennies which began in about the year 700, was struck intermittently during the 20th century until its withdrawal from circulation after 1970. From 1901 to 1970, the obverse of the bronze coin depicted the monarch who was reigning at the start of the year. The reverse, which featured an image of Britannia seated with shield, trident, and helm, was created by Leonard Charles Wyon based on an earlier design by his father, William Wyon. The coins were also used in British colonies and dominions that had not issued their own coins.
In numismatics, the term milled coinage is used to describe coins which are produced by some form of machine, rather than by manually hammering coin blanks between two dies or casting coins from dies.
Matthew Boulton was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engines, which were a great advance on the state of the art, making possible the mechanisation of factories and mills. Boulton applied modern techniques to the minting of coins, striking millions of pieces for Britain and other countries, and supplying the Royal Mint with up-to-date equipment.
The Royal Mint is a government-owned mint that produces coins for the United Kingdom. Operating under the legal name The Royal Mint Limited, the mint is a limited company that is wholly owned by Her Majesty's Treasury and is under an exclusive contract to supply all the nation's coinage. As well as minting circulating coins for use domestically and internationally, the mint also produces planchets, commemorative coins, various types of medals and precious metal bullion. The mint exports to an average of 60 countries a year, making up 70% of its total sales. Formed over 1,100 years ago, the mint was historically part of a series of mints that became centralised to produce coins for the Kingdom of England, all of Great Britain and eventually most of the British Empire. The original London mint from which the Royal Mint is the successor was established in 886 AD and operated within the Tower of London for approximately 800 years before moving to what is now called Royal Mint Court where it remained until the 1960s. As Britain followed the rest of the world in decimalising its currency, the Mint moved from London to a new 38-acre (15 ha) plant in Llantrisant, Glamorgan, Wales, where it has remained since.
The Royal Canadian Mint is the mint of Canada and a Crown corporation, operating under the Royal Canadian Mint Act. The shares of the Mint are held in trust for the Crown in right of Canada.
A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins that can be used as currency.
Kings Norton, alternatively King's Norton, is an area of Birmingham, England. Historically in Worcestershire, it is also a Birmingham City Council ward within the Government of Birmingham, England. The district lies 6.5 miles south-southwest of Birmingham city centre and is within 1.5 miles of the north Worcestershire border.
The Birmingham Mint was a coining mint and metal-working company based in Birmingham, England. Formerly the world's largest privately-owned mint the company produced coins for many foreign nations including France, Italy, China and much of the British Empire during the 19th century.
The Hong Kong coinage, including 10¢, 20¢, 50¢, $1, $2, $5 & $10, is issued by Hong Kong Monetary Authority on behalf of the Government of Hong Kong. From 1863 until 1992 these coins were embossed with the reigning British monarch's effigy. From January 1993 to November 1994, a new series depicting the bauhinia flower was gradually issued, including a new denomination of $10. Since the beginning of the coin replacement programme in 1993, over 585 million coins featuring Queen Elizabeth II have been withdrawn from circulation. However, these coins remain legal tender. The total value of coins in circulation in Hong Kong can be found in Monthly Statistical Bulletin and the Annual Report
A mint mark is a letter, symbol or an inscription on a coin indicating the mint where the coin was produced.
The coins of the South African pound were part of the physical form of South Africa's historical currency, the South African pound. Prior to the Union of 1910, various authorities issued their own pounds, some as independent entities. After the Union but before 1923, coins in circulation were mostly British, but the coins of Paul Kruger's South African Republic remained in circulation. In 1923, South Africa began to issue its own coins, adopting coins that were identical in size and value to those used in Great Britain: 12 pence (12d) = 1 shilling (1s), and 20s = 1 pound (£1). On 14 February 1961 South Africa adopted a decimal currency, replacing the pound with the Rand.
Upper Canada had a short history as a coin-issuing entity.
Conder tokens, also known as 18th-century provincial tokens, were a form of privately minted token coinage struck and used during the latter part of the 18th century and the early part of the 19th century in England, Anglesey and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.
Soho Mint was created by Matthew Boulton in 1788 in his Soho Manufactory in Handsworth, West Midlands, England. A mint was erected at the manufactory containing eight machines, to his own patent design, driven by steam engine, each capable of striking 70 to 85 coins per minute.
The Australian Shilling was a type of silver coinage of the Commonwealth of Australia prior to decimalisation. The Australian shilling was derived from the British pre-decimal sterling pound system and was issued following the passing of the Australian Coinage Act of 1909, which established Australia's first formal currency system. The shilling was part of Australia's silver coinage, which included the two-shilling (florin), the sixpence and the threepence.. The coin was minted from 1910 until 1963, excluding 1923, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1938, 1947, 1949 and 1951. During this period there were no large-scale changes to Australia's silver coinage, however there were a number of changes to the design of the shilling. The most significant modification to the design of the Australian shilling was the change in its reverse design, which occurred in 1938 when the design was altered from the Australian Coat of Arms (1910-1936) to a Merino ram’s head (1938-1963).
The bun penny is a bronze pre-decimal penny (1d) which was issued by the Royal Mint from 1860 to 1894. The designs of both obverse and reverse are by Leonard Charles Wyon. It was the first type of bronze penny issued by the Royal Mint, the incipient issue of a series which was to last until decimalisation in 1971. The bun penny gets its name from Queen Victoria's hairstyle, which is gathered together in a 'bun'.
The pre-decimal penny (1d) was a coin worth 1⁄240 of a pound sterling, or 1⁄12 of a shilling. Its symbol was d, from the Roman denarius. It was a continuation of the earlier English penny, and in Scotland it had the same monetary value as one pre-1707 Scottish shilling. The penny was originally minted in silver, but from the late 18th century it was minted in copper, and then after 1860 in bronze.
The pre-decimal twopence (2d) was a coin worth 1/120 of a pound sterling, or two pence. It was a short-lived denomination in copper, being minted in only 1797 by Matthew Boulton's Soho Mint.
The Castaing machine is a device used to add lettering and decoration to the edge of a coin. Such lettering was necessitated by counterfeiting and edge clipping, which was a common problem resulting from the uneven and irregular hammered coinage. When Aubin Olivier introduced milled coinage to France, he also developed a method of marking the edges with lettering which would make it possible to detect if metal had been shaved from the edge. This method involved using a collar, into which the metal flowed from the pressure of the press. This technique was slower and more costly than later methods. France abandoned milled coinage in favour of hammering in 1585.
References
- ↑ "Memoirs". Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. 87: 633–637. 1914. doi:10.1243/PIME_PROC_1914_087_019_02.
- ↑ "Kings Norton Metal Co". Iron. 7 March 1890. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
- ↑ "THE HEATON, BIRMINGHAM, AND IMI MINTS". E-Sylum. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
- ↑ Craig, John (2011). The Mint - A History of the London Mint from A.D. 287 to 1948. Cambridge University Press. p. 291. ISBN 9780521170772.
- ↑ "Kings Norton Metal Co". Grace's Guide. Retrieved 15 December 2020.