England | |
| Value | Penny, Half-crown |
|---|---|
| Years of minting | 1913-1914 |
| Mintage | 10 or 11 known |
| Obverse | |
 | |
| Design | Defaced with the words 'Votes For Women' |
| Reverse | |
The Suffragette penny is the name given to surviving examples of pre-decimal British pennies that were defaced by British suffragettes. They were a more subtle form of protest than window breaking and arson. There are currently only 10 or 11 pennies known to exist and all are believed to date from 1913. [1] [2]
Each penny was hand stamped using metal punches and a hammer. Of the existing examples, all have the words "Votes for Women" across the obverse side of the coin, marked by the head of the king, either Edward VII or George V. The exceptions to this are the three coins minted during the reign of Queen Victoria, where the words are on the reverse of the coin. [3] [4]
The surviving coins can be identified by the similarities in the 'T', 'M', 'E' and 'O'. [4] The same set of punches was used for all known, surviving, genuine examples. [5] It has been suggested that all coins may have been produced by one individual. [6] Although all the coins are referred to as pennies, one of the surviving coins is actually a half crown. [4]
Scrutiny of catalogues and journals produced by the suffrage movement do not list these pieces for sale. The practice was also used by American suffrage activists to deface currency in the United States. [7]
At 3 centimetres (1.2 in) in diameter, pre-decimal pennies were large enough for messages to show clearly on them. As they were made of bronze and of low value, they would have been impractical for the Bank of England to withdraw from circulation. [2] Defaced coins were often rejected by shopkeepers, which prevented them entering circulation, lessening their impact as a propaganda tool. [3]
Press reports of the time suggest that the suffragettes were taking inspiration from anarchists who were known to stamp coins with the words "Vive L'Anarchie". [4] However, according to numismatist Tom Hockenhull, the defacement of money was never a major strategy, despite the attention it attracted. [5]
One example, from the British Museum's collection, is re-engraved with the date 26 July 1913, potentially connecting to the Great Pilgrimage, a rally which concluded in Hyde Park, London, on that date. [5]
Despite the connection to the Votes for Women campaign, no historical sources explicitly connecting these issues to the activities of the Women's Social & Political Union is known. [6]
House clearances in the 1970s and 1980s meant that examples of these coins came back into public knowledge. [5]
One coin, which was uncovered by a detectorist at Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire in the 1980s, has a hole through it and was likely worn as a pendant, or on a watch-chain or even a bracelet, during the object's use. [5] Its presence there might be potentially connected to a recruitment rally for the Yorkshire Hussars that took place there in September 1914. [5] The commander of the regiment was Viscount Helmsley, who was an outspoken opponent of women's suffrage. [5] This example is also the latest of the coins, minted in 1913, which gives a likely date of defacement, as most suffragette activity ceased with the outbreak of World War I the following year. [4]
The first display of one of these objects was in 2009 as part of the British Museum's Treasures of the World’s Cultures touring exhibition. [6] In 2010, the coin held by the British Museum was featured as part of A History of the World in 100 Objects , a joint project between the museum and BBC Radio 4. [2] The example held by the Fitzwilliam Museum was displayed in 2022 as part of the organisation's exhibition Defaced! Money, Conflict, Protest. [8]
However, Hockenhull notes that while its inclusion brought a greater awareness to the coins, it also created a market for counterfeits and imitations. [4] [7] According to him, there are only 10 coins that can be considered true suffragette pennies. [4] In 2011 the metal-detected find from Rievaulx was sold on ebay to a private collector in San Francisco for £143.59. [9] Other authenticated examples are also in private collections. [4]
In 2022 a piece of silverware was discovered as part of a house clearance in Fochabers, Scotland which has an unauthenticated penny attached to the base. [10]
The standard circulating coinage of the United Kingdom, British Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories is denominated in pennies and pounds sterling, and ranges in value from one penny sterling to two pounds. Since decimalisation, on 15 February 1971, the pound has been divided into 100 (new) pence. Before decimalisation, twelve pence made a shilling, and twenty shillings made a pound.
The British decimal one penny (1p) coin is a unit of currency and denomination of sterling coinage worth 1⁄100 of one pound. Its obverse featured the profile of Queen Elizabeth II since the coin's introduction on 15 February 1971, the day British currency was decimalised until her death on 8 September 2022. A new portrait featuring King Charles III was introduced on 30 September 2022, designed by Martin Jennings. Four different portraits of the Queen were used on the obverse; the last design by Jody Clark was introduced in 2015. The second and current reverse, designed by Matthew Dent, features a segment of the Royal Shield and was introduced in 2008. The penny is the lowest value coin ever to circulate in the United Kingdom.
The British decimal halfpenny coin was a denomination of sterling coinage introduced in February 1971, at the time of decimalisation, and was worth 1⁄200 of one pound. It was ignored in banking transactions, which were carried out in units of 1p.
Decimal Day in the United Kingdom and in Ireland was Monday 15 February 1971, the day on which each country decimalised its respective £sd currency of pounds, shillings, and pence.
£sd is the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies once common throughout Europe, especially in the British Isles and hence in several countries of the British Empire and subsequently the Commonwealth. The abbreviation originates from the Latin currency denominations librae, solidi, and denarii. In the United Kingdom, these were referred to as pounds, shillings, and pence.
The Women's Freedom League was an organisation in the United Kingdom from 1907 to 1961 which campaigned for women's suffrage, pacifism and sexual equality. It was founded by former members of the Women's Social and Political Union after the Pankhurst's decided to rule without democratic support from their members.
The British Museum Department of Coins and Medals is a department of the British Museum involving the collection, research and exhibition of numismatics, and comprising the largest library of numismatic artefacts in the United Kingdom, including almost one million coins, medals, tokens and other related objects. The collection spans the history of coinage from its origins in the 7th century BC to the present day, and is representative of both Eastern and Western numismatic traditions.
Lieutenant-Colonel Charles William Reginald Duncombe, 2nd Earl of Feversham, known as Viscount Helmsley from 1881 to 1915, was a British Conservative Party politician and soldier.
Princess Sophia Alexandrovna Duleep Singh was a prominent suffragette in the United Kingdom. Her father was Maharaja Sir Duleep Singh, who had lost his Sikh Empire to the Punjab Province of British India and was subsequently exiled to England. Sophia's mother was Bamba Müller, who was half German and half Ethiopian, and her godmother was Queen Victoria. She had four sisters, including two half-sisters, and three brothers. She lived at Hampton Court Palace in an apartment in Faraday House given to her by Queen Victoria as a grace-and-favour home.
A countermarked, punchmarked or counterstamped coin is a coin that has had some additional mark or symbol punched into it at some point after it was originally produced while in circulation. This practice is now obsolete.
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members of the British Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), a women-only movement founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst, which engaged in direct action and civil disobedience. In 1906, a reporter writing in the Daily Mail coined the term suffragette for the WSPU, derived from suffragist, in order to belittle the women advocating women's suffrage. The militants embraced the new name, even adopting it for use as the title of the newspaper published by the WSPU.
The British pre-decimal penny was a denomination of sterling coinage worth 1⁄240 of one pound or 1⁄12 of one 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.
Coinage in Anglo-Saxon England refers to the use of coins, either for monetary value or for other purposes, in Anglo-Saxon England.
Elspeth Douglas McClelland (1879–1920) was an English suffragette and architect. She is known for being a "human letter" sent by the suffragettes to the Prime Minister.
The British twopence (2d) coin was a denomination of sterling coinage worth two pennies or 1/120 of a pound. It was a short-lived denomination in copper, being minted only in 1797 by Matthew Boulton's Soho Mint.
The Suffragette Memorial is an outdoor sculpture commemorating those who fought for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, located in the north-west corner of Christchurch Gardens, Victoria, London. The sculptors were Lorne McKean and Edwin Russell and the project was devised and supervised by the architect Paul Paget. The memorial was unveiled in 1970. It takes the form of a scroll in the shape of the letter S, created in fibreglass and finished in cold-cast bronze, placed on a conical plinth. The text of the scroll reads:
This tribute is erected by the Suffragette Fellowship to commemorate the courage and perseverance of all those men and women who in the long struggle for votes for women selflessly braved derision, opposition and ostracism, many enduring physical violence and suffering.
Women's suffrage, the legal right of women to vote, has been depicted in film in a variety of ways since the invention of narrative film in the late nineteenth century. Some early films satirized and mocked suffragists and Suffragettes as "unwomanly" "man-haters," or sensationalized documentary footage. Suffragists countered these depictions by releasing narrative films and newsreels that argued for their cause. After women won the vote in countries with a national cinema, women's suffrage became a historical event depicted in both fiction and nonfiction films.
The Hunger Strike Medal was a silver medal awarded between August 1909 and 1914 to suffragette prisoners by the leadership of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). During their imprisonment, they went on hunger strike while serving their sentences in the prisons of the United Kingdom for acts of militancy in their campaign for women's suffrage. Many women were force-fed and their individual medals were created to reflect this.
Women's suffrage was the seeking of the right of women to vote in elections. It was carried out by both men and women, it was a very elongated and gruelling campaign that went on for 86 years before the Representation of the People Act 1918 was introduced on 6 February 1918, which provided a few women with the right to vote.
Pank-a-Squith was a political board game about the suffragette movement created around 1909. It was created for the British Women's Social and Political Union as a way to generate funds and help spread women's suffrage ideologies.
