British coinage - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The standard circulating coin

Coin

A coin is a piece of hard material that is standardized in weight, is produced in large quantities in order to facilitate trade, and primarily can be used as a legal tender token for commerce in the designated country, region, or territory....

age of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

is denominated in pounds sterling

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

(symbol "£"

Pound sign

The pound sign is the symbol for the pound sterling—the currency of the United Kingdom . The same symbol is used for similarly named currencies in some other countries and territories, such as the Irish pound, Gibraltar pound, Australian pound and the Italian lira...

), and, since the introduction of the two-pound coin in 1998, ranges in value from one penny to two pounds. Since decimalisation

Decimal Day

Decimal Day was the day the United Kingdom and Ireland decimalised their currencies.-Old system:Under the old currency of pounds, shillings and pence, the pound was made up of 240 pence , with 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings in a...

, 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

Royal Mint

The Royal Mint is the body permitted to manufacture, or mint, coins in the United Kingdom. The Mint originated over 1,100 years ago, but since 2009 it operates as Royal Mint Ltd, a company which has an exclusive contract with HM Treasury to supply all coinage for the UK...

in Llantrisant

Llantrisant

Llantrisant is a town in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf in Wales, within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales, lying on the River Ely and the Afon Clun. The town's name translates as The Parish of the Three Saints. The three saints in question are St Illtyd, St Gwynno and St...

, Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

. The Royal Mint also commissions the coins' designs.

As of 30 March 2010, there are an estimated 28 billion coins circulating in the United Kingdom

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

£sd

£sd was the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies used in the Kingdom of England, later the United Kingdom, and ultimately in much of the British Empire...

system. The decimal coins are minted in copper-plated

Copper plating

Copper plating is the process in which a layer of copper is deposited on the item to be plated by using an electric current.Three basic types of processes are commercially available based upon the complexing system utilized:...

steel (previously bronze

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

), 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 heptagons of constant curvature. All the circulating coins have an effigy of Queen Elizabeth II

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

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

Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom

The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom is the official coat of arms of the British monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II. These arms are used by the Queen in her official capacity as monarch of the United Kingdom, and are officially known as her Arms of Dominion...

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

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

inscription whose full form is ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA FIDEI DEFENSOR, meaning "Elizabeth II

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

, by the grace of God, Queen and Defender of the Faith

Fidei defensor

Fidei defensor is a Latin title which translates to Defender of the Faith in English and Défenseur de la Foi in French...

".

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

Maundy money

Royal Maundy is a religious service in the Church of England held on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday. At the service, the British Monarch or a royal official ceremonially distributes small silver coins known as "Maundy money" as symbolic alms to elderly recipients...

and bullion coinage of gold sovereigns, half sovereigns, and gold and silver Britannia coin

Britannia coin

Britannia coins are British bullion coins issued by the Royal Mint in gold since 1987 and in silver since 1997.Britannia gold coins contain one troy ounce of gold and have a face value of £100. Gold Britannias also are issued in fractional sizes of one-half, one-quarter, and one-tenth of a troy...

s 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.

In the years just prior to decimalisation, the circulating British coins were the half crown

Half crown (British coin)

The half crown was a denomination of British money worth half of a crown, equivalent to two and a half shillings , or one-eighth of a pound. The half crown was first issued in 1549, in the reign of Edward VI...

(2/6), two shillings or florin, shilling

Shilling (United Kingdom)

The British shilling is an historic British coin from the eras of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the later United Kingdom; also adopted as a Scot denomination upon the 1707 Treaty of Union....

, sixpence (6d), threepence (3d), penny

Penny (British pre-decimal coin)

The penny of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, was in circulation from the early 18th century until February 1971, Decimal Day....

(1d) and halfpenny (½d). The farthing (¼d) had been withdrawn in 1960.

All modern coins feature a profile of the current monarch

Monarch

A monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...

'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. Medieval 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

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

pennies of Offa of Mercia

Offa of Mercia

Offa was the King of Mercia from 757 until his death in July 796. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æthelbald after defeating the other claimant Beornred. In the early years of Offa's reign it is likely...

, which were inscribed with the legend OFFA REX "King Offa". The English silver penny

History of the English penny (c. 600-1066)

The history of the English penny can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the 7th century: to the small, thick silver coins known to contemporaries as pæningas or denarii, though now often referred to as sceattas by numismatists. Broader, thinner pennies inscribed with the name of the king...

was derived from another silver coin, the sceat

Sceat

Sceattas were small, thick silver coins minted in England, Frisia and Jutland during the Anglo-Saxon period.-History:Their name derives from an Old English word meaning 'wealth', which has been applied to these coins since the seventeenth century, based on interpretations of the law-code of King...

, of 20 troy grains

Grain (measure)

A grain is a unit of measurement of mass that is nominally based upon the mass of a single seed of a cereal. From the Bronze Age into the Renaissance the average masses of wheat and barley grains were part of the legal definition of units of mass. However, there is no evidence of any country ever...

weight, which was in general circulation in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

during the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

. In the 12th century, Henry II

Henry II of England

Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...

established the Sterling Silver

Sterling silver

Sterling silver is an alloy of silver containing 92.5% by mass of silver and 7.5% by mass of other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925....

standard for English coinage, of 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper, replacing the earlier mediæval use of fine silver. The coinage reform of 1816

Great Recoinage of 1816

The Great Recoinage of 1816 was an attempt by the British Government to re-stabilise the currency of Great Britain following economic difficulties precipitated by the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.-History:...

set up a weight/value ratio and physical sizes for silver coins. Silver was eliminated in 1947, except for Maundy coinage.

Manufacture

The history of the Royal Mint

Royal Mint

stretches back to 886 A.D. For many centuries production took place in London, initially at the Tower of London

Tower of London

Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...

, and then at premises nearby in Tower Hill

Tower Hill

Tower Hill is an elevated spot northwest of the Tower of London, just outside the limits of the City of London, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Formerly it was part of the Tower Liberty under the direct administrative control of Tower...

. In the 1970s production was transferred to Llantrisant

Llantrisant

in South Wales. Historically Scotland and England had separate coinage; the last Scottish coins

Scottish coinage

The coinage of Scotland covers a range of currency and coins in Scotland during Classical antiquity, the reign of ancient provincial kings, royal dynasties of the ancient Kingdom of Scotland and the later Mediaeval and Early modern periods....

were struck in 1709 shortly after union with England

Acts of Union 1707

The Acts of Union were two Parliamentary Acts - the Union with Scotland Act passed in 1706 by the Parliament of England, and the Union with England Act passed in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland - which put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed on 22 July 1706,...

.

Coins were originally hand-hammered

Hammered coinage

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...

– an ancient technique in which two dies are struck together with a blank coin between them. This was the traditional method of manufacturing coins in the Western world from the pre-Hellenic Greek era onwards, in comparison to Asia where coins were traditionally cast. The first milled (that is, machine-made) coins were produced during the reign of Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...

(1558–1603) and periodically during the subsequent reigns of James I

James I of England

James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

and Charles I

Charles I of England

Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

, but there was initially opposition to mechanisation from the moneyers who ensured that most coins continued to be produced by hammering. All British coins produced since 1662 have been milled.

Origins of the penny

The English penny first appeared in Anglo-Saxon

History of Anglo-Saxon England

Anglo-Saxon England refers to the period of the history of that part of Britain, that became known as England, lasting from the end of Roman occupation and establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th century until the Norman conquest of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror...

times, as a silver

Silver

coin. It was derived from another silver coin, the sceat

Sceat

, of 20 troy grains

Grain (measure)

weight, which was in general circulation in Europe

Europe

during the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

. The weight of the English penny was fixed at 22.5 troy grains (about 1.46 grams) by Offa of Mercia

Offa of Mercia

, an 8th century contemporary of Charlemagne

Charlemagne

Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...

. The coin's designated value, however, was that of 24 troy grains of silver (one pennyweight

Pennyweight

A pennyweight is a unit of mass that is equal to 24 grains, 1/20 of a troy ounce, 1/240 of a troy pound, approximately 0.054857 avoirdupois ounce and exactly 1.55517384 grams....

, or of a troy pound

Troy weight

Troy weight is a system of units of mass customarily used for precious metals, gemstones, and black powder.There are 12 troy ounces per troy pound, rather than the 16 ounces per pound found in the more common avoirdupois system. The troy ounce is 480 grains, compared with the avoirdupois ounce,...

, or about 1.56 grams), with the difference being a premium attached by virtue of the minting into coins. Thus 240 pennyweights made one troy pound of silver in weight, and the monetary value of 240 pennies also became known as a "pound". (240 actual pennies, however, weighed only 5400 troy grains, known as tower pound, a unit used only by mints. The tower pound was abolished in the 16th century.) The silver penny remained the primary unit of coinage for about 500 years.

The purity of 92.5% silver (i.e., sterling silver

Sterling silver

Sterling silver is an alloy of silver containing 92.5% by mass of silver and 7.5% by mass of other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925....

) was instituted by Henry II

Henry II of England

in 1158 with the "Tealby Penny"—a hammered coin

Hammered coinage

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...

.

Over the years the penny was gradually debased until by the 16th century it contained about a third the silver content of a proper troy 24 grain pennyweight.

The medieval penny would have been the equivalent of around 1/6 in value in 1915. British government sources suggest that prices have risen over 61-fold since 1914, so a medieval sterling silver penny might have the equivalent purchasing power of around £4.50 today, and a farthing (a quarter penny) would have the value of slightly more than today's pound (about £1.125).

Silver content

From the time of Charlemagne

Charlemagne

until the 12th century, the silver currency of England was made from the highest purity silver available. Unfortunately there were drawbacks to minting currency of fine silver, notably the level of wear it suffered, and the ease with which coins could be "clipped

Coin clipping

Coin debasement is the act of decreasing the amount of precious metal in a coin, while continuing to circulate it at face value. This was frequently done by governments in order to inflate the amount of currency in circulation; typically, some of the precious metal was replaced by a cheaper metal...

", or trimmed, by those dealing in the currency.

In the 12th century a new standard for English coinage was established by Henry II

Henry II of England

— the Sterling Silver

Sterling silver

Sterling silver is an alloy of silver containing 92.5% by mass of silver and 7.5% by mass of other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925....

standard of 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper. This was a harder-wearing alloy, yet it was still a rather high grade of silver. It went some way towards discouraging the practice of "clipping", though this practice was further discouraged and largely eliminated with the introduction of the milled edge we see on coins today.

By 1696 the currency had been seriously weakened by an increase in clipping during the Nine Years' War to the extent that it was decided to recall and replace all hammered silver coinage in circulation. The exercise came close to disaster due to fraud and mismanagement, but was saved by the personal intervention of Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...

after his appointment as Warden of the Mint

Warden of the Mint

The Warden of the Mint was in principle the highest ranking officer of the Royal Mint of Great Britain, having oversight over its operations and physical plant by virtue of a royal warrant. The office received a yearly emolument of £500. Technically subordinate to the Warden was the Master of the...

, a post which was intended to be a sinecure

Sinecure

A sinecure means an office that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service...

, but which he took seriously. Newton was subsequently given the post of Master of the Mint

Master of the Mint

Master of the Mint was an important office in the governments of Scotland and England, and later Great Britain, between the 16th and 19th centuries. The Master was the highest officer in the Royal Mint. Until 1699, appointment was usually for life. Its holder occasionally sat in the cabinet...

in 1699. Following the 1707 union

Acts of Union 1707

between the Kingdom of England

Kingdom of England

The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...

and the Kingdom of Scotland

Kingdom of Scotland

The Kingdom of Scotland was a Sovereign state in North-West Europe that existed from 843 until 1707. It occupied the northern third of the island of Great Britain and shared a land border to the south with the Kingdom of England...

, Newton used his previous experience to direct the 1707–1710 Scottish recoinage

Scottish coinage

, resulting in a common currency

Economic and monetary union

An economic and monetary union is a type of trade bloc which is composed of an economic union with a monetary union. It is to be distinguished from a mere monetary union , which does not involve a common market. This is the fifth stage of economic integration...

for the new Kingdom of Great Britain

Kingdom of Great Britain

The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...

. After September 15, 1709 no further silver coins were ever struck in Scotland.

As a result of a report written by Newton on September 21, 1717 to the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury

HM Treasury

HM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy...

the bimetallic relationship between gold coins and silver coins was changed by
Royal proclamation on December 22, 1717, forbidding the exchange of gold guineas for more than 21 silver shillings. Due to differing valuations in other European countries this inadvertently resulted in a silver shortage as silver coins were used to pay for imports, while exports were paid for in gold, effectively moving Britain from the silver standard

Silver standard

The silver standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed weight of silver. The silver specie standard was widespread from the fall of the Byzantine Empire until the 19th century...

to its first gold standard

Gold standard

The gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed mass of gold. There are distinct kinds of gold standard...

, rather than the bimetallic standard

Bimetallism

In economics, bimetallism is a monetary standard in which the value of the monetary unit is defined as equivalent both to a certain quantity of gold and to a certain quantity of silver; such a system establishes a fixed rate of exchange between the two metals...

implied by the proclamation.

The coinage reform of 1816 set up a weight/value ratio and physical sizes for silver coins.

In 1920, the silver content of all British coins was reduced from 92.5% to 50%, with a portion of the remainder consisting of manganese

Manganese

Manganese is a chemical element, designated by the symbol Mn. It has the atomic number 25. It is found as a free element in nature , and in many minerals...

, which caused the coins to tarnish to a very dark colour after they had been in circulation for a significant period. Silver was eliminated altogether in 1947, except for Maundy coinage

Maundy money

, which returned to the pre-1920 92.5% silver composition.

The 1816 weight/value ratio and size system survived the debasement of silver in 1920, and the adoption of token coins of cupro-nickel

Cupronickel

Cupronickel or copper-nickel or "cupernickel" is an alloy of copper that contains nickel and strengthening elements, such as iron and manganese. Cupronickel is highly resistant to corrosion in seawater, because its electrode potential is adjusted to be neutral with regard to seawater...

in 1947. It even persisted after decimalisation for those coins which had equivalents and continued to be minted with their values in new pence. The UK finally abandoned it in the 1990s when smaller, more convenient, "silver" coins were introduced.

Monarch's head

All coins since the 17th century have featured a profile of the current monarch

Monarch

's head. The direction in which they face changes with each successive monarch, a pattern that began with the Stuarts, as shown in the table below:

Facing left		Facing right
Cromwell Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.... 1653–1658		Charles II Charles II of England Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War... 1660–1685
James II James II of England James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland... 1685–1688		William William III of England William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland... and Mary Mary II of England Mary II was joint Sovereign of England, Scotland, and Ireland with her husband and first cousin, William III and II, from 1689 until her death. William and Mary, both Protestants, became king and queen regnant, respectively, following the Glorious Revolution, which resulted in the deposition of... 1689–1694 William III William III of England William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland... 1694–1702
Anne Anne of Great Britain Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Act of Union, two of her realms, England and Scotland, were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.Anne's Catholic father, James II and VII, was deposed during the... 1702–1714		George I George I of Great Britain George I was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 until his death, and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698.... 1714–1727
George II George II of Great Britain George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany... 1727–1760		George III George III of the United Kingdom George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death... 1760–1820
George IV George IV of the United Kingdom George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later... 1820–1830		William IV William IV of the United Kingdom William IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death... 1830–1837
Victoria Victoria of the United Kingdom Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India.... 1837–1901		Edward VII Edward VII of the United Kingdom Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910... 1901–1910
George V George V of the United Kingdom George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936.... 1910–1936
Edward VIII Edward VIII of the United Kingdom Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay... 1936 (uncirculated issues)
George VI George VI of the United Kingdom George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death... 1936–1952		Elizabeth II Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,... 1952–present

For the Tudors

Tudor dynasty

The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship of Ireland, later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his mother of a legitimised...

and pre-Restoration

English Restoration

The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...

Stuarts, both left- and right-facing portrait images were minted within the reign of a single monarch (left-facing images were more common). Medieval portrait images tended to be full face.

There was a small quirk in this alternating pattern when Edward VIII

Edward VIII of the United Kingdom

Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay...

ascended to the throne in January 1936 and was portrayed facing left, the same as his predecessor George V

George V of the United Kingdom

George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....

. This was because Edward thought that to be his best side. However, Edward VIII abdicated in December 1936 and his coins were never put into general circulation. When George VI

George VI of the United Kingdom

George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...

came to the throne, he had his coins struck with him facing the left, as if Edward VIII's coins had faced right (as they should have done according to tradition). Thus, in a timeline of circulating British coins, George V and VI's coins both feature left-facing portraits, although they follow directly chronologically.

Production and circulation

All UK coins are produced by the Royal Mint

Royal Mint

. The same coinage is used across all countries of the United Kingdom (England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, Wales

Wales

and Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

). Unlike banknotes, local issues of coins are not produced in these regions. The pound coin until 2008 has been produced in regional designs, but these circulate equally in all parts of the UK (see UK designs, below).

Every year, newly minted coins are checked for size, weight, and composition at a Trial of the Pyx

Trial of the Pyx

The Trial of the Pyx is the procedure in the United Kingdom for ensuring that newly minted coins conform to required standards. Trials have been held from the twelfth century to the present day, normally once per calendar year; the form of the ceremony has been essentially the same since 1282 AD...

. Essentially the same procedure has been used since the 13th century. Assaying is now done by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths

Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths

The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Company, which has origins in the twelfth century, received a Royal Charter in 1327. It ranks fifth in the order of precedence of Livery Companies. Its motto is Justitia Virtutum Regina, Latin for Justice...

on behalf of HM Treasury

HM Treasury

.

As of March 2007, the total value of coinage in circulation is estimated at three and a half billion pounds, of which the £1 and £2 coins account for over two billion pounds. The 1p and 2p coins from 1971 are the oldest standard-issue coins still in circulation.

Coins from the British dependencies and territories that use the pound as their currency are sometimes found in change in other jurisdictions. Strictly they are not legal tender in the United Kingdom and tend not to be accepted by UK traders and some banks. However, since they have the same specifications as UK coins, they are sometimes tolerated in commerce, and can readily be used in vending machines.

UK-issued coins are, on the other hand, generally fully accepted and freely mixed in other British dependencies and territories that use the pound.

An extensive coinage redesign was commissioned by the Royal Mint in 2005, and new designs were gradually introduced into the circulating British coinage from summer 2008. The pre-2008 coins will remain legal tender and are expected to stay in circulation for the foreseeable future.

Decimalisation

Since decimalisation

Decimal Day

on 15 February 1971 the pound (symbol "£"

Pound sign

) has been divided into 100 pence. (Prior to decimalisation the pound was divided into 20 shillings, each of 12 (old) pence; thus there were 240 (old) pence to the pound. The value of the pound itself was unchanged by decimalisation.)

The first decimal coins — the five pence

British Five Pence coin

The British decimal five pence coin – often pronounced "five pee" – is a subdivision of pound sterling first issued on 23 April 1968 in preparation for the 1971 decimalisation of the currency. At that time it had the same value, size and weight as the existing shilling, and it may be...

(5p) and ten pence

British Ten Pence coin

The British decimal ten pence coin – often pronounced "ten pee" – was issued on 23 April 1968 in preparation for the 1971 decimalisation of the currency. At that time it had the same value, size, and weight as the existing florin , and it may be viewed as a continuation of the older coin...

(10p) — were introduced in 1968 in the run-up to decimalisation in order to familiarise the public with the new system. These initially circulated alongside the pre-decimal coinage and had the same size and value as the existing one shilling and two shilling coins respectively. The fifty pence

British Fifty Pence coin

The British decimal fifty pence coin – often pronounced "fifty pee" – was issued on 14 October 1969 in the run-up to decimalisation to replace the ten shilling note...

(50p) coin followed in 1969, replacing the old ten shilling note. The remaining decimal coins — at the time, the half penny

British Half Penny coin

The British decimal half penny was first issued on 15 February 1971, the day the British currency was decimalised. In practice it had been available from banks in bags for some weeks previously....

(½p), penny

British One Penny coin

The British decimal one penny coin, produced by the Royal Mint, was issued on 15 February 1971, the day the British currency was decimalised. In practice, it had been available from banks in bags of £1 for some weeks previously...

(1p) and two pence

British Two Pence coin

The British decimal two pence coin – often pronounced "two pee" – was issued by the Royal Mint on 15 February 1971, the day the British currency was decimalised. In practice it had been available from banks in bags of £1 for some weeks previously...

(2p) — were issued in 1971 at decimalisation. A quarter-penny coin, to be struck in aluminium

Aluminium

Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....

, was proposed at the time decimalisation was being planned, but was never minted.

The new coins were initially marked with the wording NEW PENNY (singular) or NEW PENCE (plural). The word "new" was dropped in 1982. The symbol "p" was adopted to distinguish the new pennies from the old, which used the symbol "d" (from the Latin

Latin

denarius
Denarius
In the Roman currency system, the denarius was a small silver coin first minted in 211 BC. It was the most common coin produced for circulation but was slowly debased until its replacement by the antoninianus...

, a coin used in the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

Post 1982

In the years since decimalisation a number of changes have been made to the coinage. The twenty pence

British Twenty Pence coin

The British decimal twenty pence coin – often pronounced "twenty pee" – was issued on 9 June 1982 to fill the obvious gap between the ten pence and fifty pence coins...

(20p) coin was introduced in 1982 to fill the gap between the 10p and 50p coins. The pound coin

British One Pound coin

The circulating British one pound coin is minted from a nickel-brass alloy of approximately 70% copper, 24.5% zinc, and 5.5% nickel. The coin weighs 9.50 grams and has a diameter of 22.50 millimetres...

(£1) was introduced in 1983 to replace the Bank of England

Bank of England

The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...

£1 banknote

Banknote

A banknote is a kind of negotiable instrument, a promissory note made by a bank payable to the bearer on demand, used as money, and in many jurisdictions is legal tender. In addition to coins, banknotes make up the cash or bearer forms of all modern fiat money...

which was discontinued in 1984 (although the Scottish banks continued producing them for some time afterwards; the last of them, the Royal Bank of Scotland

Royal Bank of Scotland

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group is a British banking and insurance holding company in which the UK Government holds an 84% stake. This stake is held and managed through UK Financial Investments Limited, whose voting rights are limited to 75% in order for the bank to retain its listing on the...

£1 note, was still in production as of early 2006). The designs on the one pound coin change annually in a largely five-year cycle.

The decimal half penny coin was demonetised in 1984 as its value was by then too small to be useful. The pre-decimal sixpence, shilling

Shilling (United Kingdom)

The British shilling is an historic British coin from the eras of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the later United Kingdom; also adopted as a Scot denomination upon the 1707 Treaty of Union....

and two shilling

British Two Shilling coin

The British two shilling coin, also known as the florin or "two bob bit" was issued from 1849 until 1967. It was worth one tenth of a pound, or twenty-four old pence...

coins, which had continued to circulate alongside the decimal coinage with values of 2½p, 5p and 10p respectively, were finally withdrawn in 1980, 1990 and 1993 respectively.

In the 1990s the Royal Mint reduced the sizes of the 5p, 10p and 50p coins. As a consequence, the oldest 5p coins in circulation date from 1990, the oldest 10p coins from 1992 and the oldest 50p coins come from 1997. Since 1997, many special commemorative

Commemorative

Commemorative may refer to:*Commemorative coin*United States Commemorative Coin*Commemorative issue - a special edition of a book, magazine, or other item released around, or in memory of, a special event or occurrence.*Commemorative stamp...

designs of 50p have been issued. Some of these are found fairly frequently in circulation and some are rare. They are all legal tender.

A circulating bimetallic two pound

British Two Pound coin

The British two pound coin was first issued as a commemorative coin in 1986 to celebrate the Commonwealth Games in Scotland. Six further commemorative issues followed between 1989 and 1996...

(£2) coin was introduced in 1998 (first minted

Mint (coin)

A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins for currency.The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. One difference is that the history of the mint is usually closely tied to the political situation of an era...

in, and dated, 1997). There had previously been unimetallic commemorative £2 coins which did not normally circulate. This tendency to use the two pound coin for commemorative issues has continued since the introduction of the bimetallic coin, and a few of the older unimetallic coins have since entered circulation.

There are also commemorative issues of crowns. Before 1990 these had a face value of twenty-five pence

British Twenty-Five Pence coin

The commemorative British decimal twenty-five pence coin was issued in four designs between 1972 and 1981. These coins were a post-decimalisation continuation of the traditional crown, with the same value of a quarter of a pound sterling. Uniquely in British decimal coinage, the coins do not have...

(25p), equivalent to the five shilling crown used in pre-decimal Britain. However, in 1990 crowns were redenominated with a face value of five pounds

British Five Pound coin

The British five pound coin is a redenominated commemorative coin, a continuation of the former crown, being identical with it in size and weight. The crown had continued to be minted occasionally after decimalisation, with a value of twenty-five pence, although, as was the case with most...

(£5) as the previous value was considered not sufficient for such a high-status coin. The size and weight of the coin remained exactly the same. Decimal crowns are generally not found in circulation as their market value is likely to be higher than their face value, but they remain legal tender.

2008 redesign

In 2008, UK coins underwent an extensive redesign, which changed the reverse designs, and some other details, of all coins except the £2. The original intention was to exclude both the £1 and £2 coins from the redesign because they were "relatively new additions" to the coinage, but it was later decided to include the £1 coin. This was the first wholesale change to British coinage since the first decimal coins were introduced in April 1968, in keeping with an unwritten convention that the coin designs should be changed every 40 years to keep the coinage fresh. The new coins were initially to be put into circulation in early 2008, although they did not actually start to appear until mid-2008.

The major design feature was the introduction of a reverse design shared across six coins (1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p), that can be pieced together to form an image of the Royal Shield

Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom

. This was the first time a coin design had been featured across multiple coins in this way. Completing the set, the new £1 reverse features the Shield in its entirety. The effigy of the Queen, by Ian Rank-Broadley

Ian Rank-Broadley

Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS is a British sculptor who has produced many acclaimed works, among which are several designs for British coinage....

, continues to appear on the obverse of all the coins.

On all coins, the beading (ring of small dots) around the edge of the obverses has been removed. The obverse of the 20p coin has also been amended to incorporate the year, which had been on the reverse of the coin since its introduction in 1982 (giving rise to an unusual issue of a mule

Mule (coin)

In numismatics, a mule is a coin or medal minted with obverse and reverse designs not normally seen on the same piece. These can be intentional or produced by error. This type of error is highly sought after, and examples can fetch steep prices from collectors.The earliest mules are found among...

version without a date at all). The orientation of both sides of the 50p coin has been rotated through 180 degrees, meaning the "bottom" of the coin is now a corner rather than a flat edge. The numerals showing the decimal value of each coin, previously present on all coins except £2 and £1, have been removed, leaving the values spelled out in words only.

The redesign was the result of a competition launched by the Royal Mint in August 2005, which closed on 14 November 2005. The competition was open to the public and received over 4,000 entries. The winning entry was unveiled on 2 April 2008, designed by Matthew Dent. Dent's initials can be seen on the new coinage. The Royal Mint stated the new designs were "reflecting a twenty-first century Britain". An advisor to the Royal Mint described the new coins as "post-modern", something that could not have been done 50 years previously.

The redesign was criticised by some for having no specifically Welsh symbol (such as the Welsh Dragon), because the Royal Shield does not include a specifically Welsh symbol. Wrexham

Wrexham (UK Parliament constituency)

Wrexham is a parliamentary constituency in North Wales which is represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

Ian Lucas

Ian Colin Lucas is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Wrexham since 2001...

, who was also campaigning to have the Welsh Dragon included on the Union Flag

Union Flag

The Union Flag, also known as the Union Jack, is the flag of the United Kingdom. It retains an official or semi-official status in some Commonwealth Realms; for example, it is known as the Royal Union Flag in Canada. It is also used as an official flag in some of the smaller British overseas...

, called the omission "disappointing", and stated that he would be writing to the Queen to request that the Royal Standard be changed to include Wales. The Royal Mint stated that "the Shield of the Royal Arms is symbolic of the whole of the United Kingdom and as such, represents Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland." Designer Dent stated "I am a Welshman and proud of it, but I never thought about the fact we did not have a dragon or another representation of Wales on the design because as far as I am concerned Wales is represented on the Royal Arms. This was never an issue for me."

The designs were also criticised for not including a portrayal of Britannia

Britannia

Britannia is an ancient term for Great Britain, and also a female personification of the island. The name is Latin, and derives from the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which originally designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Great Britain. However, by the...

, the female personification of Britain whose image has appeared on British coinage continuously since 1672. In response to the concern over the loss of Britannia, the chairman of the Royal Mint Advisory Committee stated "There are 806 million Britannias in circulation at the moment [on the old 50p coin]. They will remain in circulation. They will see all of us out, until they die a natural death. So whatever happens, Britannia stays around".

The Royal Mint's choice of an inexperienced coin designer to produce the new coinage was criticised by Virginia Ironside

Virginia Ironside

Virginia Ironside is a British journalist and author. She is the daughter of painter and coin designer Christopher Ironside and fashion designer and professor of fashion design at the Royal College of Art Janey Acheson. Ironside writes a column, "Dilemmas", for The Independent and a monthly column...

, daughter of Christopher Ironside

Christopher Ironside

Christopher Ironside FSIA 1970, OBE 1971, FRBS 1977 was an English painter and coin designer, particularly known for the reverse sides of the new British coins issued on decimalisation in 1971....

who designed the previous UK coins. She stated that the new designs were "totally unworkable as actual coins", due to the loss of a numerical currency identifier, and the smaller typeface used.

The German news magazine Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...

claimed that the redesign signalled the UK's intention "not to join the euro

United Kingdom and the euro

The United Kingdom's currency is the pound sterling and it has no plans to adopt the euro in the foreseeable future. The UK negotiated an opt-out from the part of the Maastricht Treaty that required it to adopt the common currency, and the coalition government elected in 2010 pledged not to join...

any time soon".

Steel 5p and 10p coins

From January 2012, 5p and 10p coins will be minted from nickel-plated steel instead of cupro-nickel, and will be 11% thicker.

Summary of denominations

Half penny (½p; £0.005) 1971–1984, demonetised since then.
One penny (1p; £0.01), 1971–present
Two pence
Two pence (British decimal coin)
The British decimal two pence coin – often pronounced "two pee" – was issued by the Royal Mint on 15 February 1971, the day the British currency was decimalised. In practice it had been available from banks in bags of £1 for some weeks previously...

(2p; £0.02), 1971–present
Five pence (5p; £0.05), 1968–1990 (reduced to present size); 1990–present
Ten pence (10p; £0.10), 1968–1992 (reduced to present size); 1992–present
Twenty pence (20p; £0.20), 1982–present
Twenty-five pence
British Twenty-Five Pence coin
The commemorative British decimal twenty-five pence coin was issued in four designs between 1972 and 1981. These coins were a post-decimalisation continuation of the traditional crown, with the same value of a quarter of a pound sterling. Uniquely in British decimal coinage, the coins do not have...

or crown (25p; £0.25), 1972–1981 (special issues, not in common circulation)
Fifty pence (50p; £0.50), 1969–1997 (reduced to present size); 1997–present
One pound
One pound (British coin)
The circulating British one pound coin is minted from a nickel-brass alloy of approximately 70% copper, 24.5% zinc, and 5.5% nickel. The coin weighs 9.50 grams and has a diameter of 22.50 millimetres...

(£1.00), 1983–present
Two pounds (£2.00), 1986–1997 (special issues); 1997–present (general issue)
Five pounds or crown (£5.00), 1990–present (special issues, not in common circulation though still legal tender)

Specifications

Denomination	Obverse	Reverse	Diameter	Thickness	Mass	Composition	Edge	Introduced
One penny	Queen Elizabeth II	Segment of the Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom	20.32 mm	1.52 mm (bronze) 1.65 mm (copper-plated steel)	3.56 g	Bronze Bronze Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal... (1971 – Sept 1992) Copper-plated steel (Sept 1992 – present)	Smooth	1971
Two pence Two pence (British decimal coin) The British decimal two pence coin – often pronounced "two pee" – was issued by the Royal Mint on 15 February 1971, the day the British currency was decimalised. In practice it had been available from banks in bags of £1 for some weeks previously...	Queen Elizabeth II	Segment of the Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom	25.9 mm	1.85 mm (bronze) 2.03 mm (copper-plated steel)	7.12 g	Bronze (1971 – Sept 1992) Copper-plated steel (Sept 1992 – present)	Smooth	1971
Five pence*	Queen Elizabeth II	Segment of the Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom	18 mm	1.7 mm (cupro-nickel) 1.89 mm (nickel-plated steel)	3.25 g	Cupronickel Cupronickel Cupronickel or copper-nickel or "cupernickel" is an alloy of copper that contains nickel and strengthening elements, such as iron and manganese. Cupronickel is highly resistant to corrosion in seawater, because its electrode potential is adjusted to be neutral with regard to seawater... (75:25) (Nickel-plated steel from Jan 2012)	Milled	1990
Ten pence*	Queen Elizabeth II	Segment of the Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom	24.5 mm	1.85 mm (cupro-nickel) 2.05 mm (nickel-plated steel)	6.5 g	Cupronickel (75:25) (Nickel-plated steel from Jan 2012)	Milled	1992
Twenty pence	Queen Elizabeth II	Segment of the Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom	21.4 mm	1.7 mm	5 g	Cupronickel (84:16)	Smooth, Reuleaux heptagon	1982
Twenty-five pence British Twenty-Five Pence coin The commemorative British decimal twenty-five pence coin was issued in four designs between 1972 and 1981. These coins were a post-decimalisation continuation of the traditional crown, with the same value of a quarter of a pound sterling. Uniquely in British decimal coinage, the coins do not have...	Queen Elizabeth II	Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century... and Charles, Prince of Wales Charles, Prince of Wales Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...	38.61 mm	2.89 mm	28.28 g	Cupronickel	Milled, with variable inscription	1972 (commemorative, not in general circulation)
Fifty pence*	Queen Elizabeth II	Segment of the Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom	27.3 mm	1.78 mm	8 g	Cupronickel (75:25)	Smooth, Reuleaux heptagon	1997
One pound One pound (British coin) The circulating British one pound coin is minted from a nickel-brass alloy of approximately 70% copper, 24.5% zinc, and 5.5% nickel. The coin weighs 9.50 grams and has a diameter of 22.50 millimetres...	Queen Elizabeth II	Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom	22.5 mm	3.15 mm	9.5 g	Nickel-brass	Milled with variable inscription and/or decoration	1983
Two pounds	Queen Elizabeth II	Design by Bruce Rushin Bruce Rushin Bruce Rushin is an art teacher from Brundall in Norfolk, United Kingdom. He taught at Flegg High School in Norfolk until 2008.In 1997, Rushin entered a competition by submitting a design for the British Two Pound coin....	28.4 mm	2.5 mm	12 g	Inner: Cupronickel Outer: Nickel-brass	Milled with variable inscription and/or decoration	1997 (issued 1998)
Five pounds	Queen Elizabeth II	No standard reverse design	38.61 mm	2.89 mm	28.28 g	Cupronickel	Milled, with variable inscription	1990 (commemorative, not in general circulation)

* The specifications and dates of introduction of the 5p, 10p and 50p coins refer to the current versions. These coins were originally issued in larger sizes in 1968 and 1969 respectively.

With their high copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

content (97%), the intrinsic value of pre-1992 1p and 2p coins increased with the surge in metal prices of the mid-2000s, until by 2006 the coins, would, if melted down, have been worth about 50% more than their face value. (To do this, however, would be illegal, and they would have had to be melted in huge quantities to achieve significant gain.) In subsequent years the price of copper fell considerably from these peaks.

Obverse

All modern British coins feature a profile of the current monarch

Monarch

's head on the obverse. There has been only one monarch since decimalisation, Queen Elizabeth II

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

, so her head appears on all decimal coins, facing to the right (see also Monarch's head, above). However, three different effigies have been used, reflecting the Queen's changing appearance as she has aged. These are the effigy by Arnold Machin

Arnold Machin

Arnold Machin O.B.E, R.A. was a British artist, sculptor, coin and stamp designer.Machin was born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1911. He started work at the age of 14 as an apprentice china painter at the Minton Pottery. During the Depression he learnt to sculpt at Stoke-on-Trent's Art School, which was...

until 1984, that by Raphael Maklouf

Raphael Maklouf

Raphael Maklouf is a sculptor, best known for designing the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II used on the coins of many Commonwealth nations....

between 1985 and 1997, and that by Ian Rank-Broadley

Ian Rank-Broadley

Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS is a British sculptor who has produced many acclaimed works, among which are several designs for British coinage....

since 1998.

All current coins carry a Latin

Latin

inscription whose full form is ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA FIDEI DEFENSOR, meaning "Elizabeth II

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

, by the grace of God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

, Queen and Defender of the Faith

Fidei defensor

Fidei defensor is a Latin title which translates to Defender of the Faith in English and Défenseur de la Foi in French...

". The inscription appears on the coins in any of several abbreviated forms, typically ELIZABETH II D G REG F D.

From 2008 the circle of dots between the lettering and the rim was removed from the 1p, 2p, 5, and 10p and £1. (It was never on the 20p and 50p, and is retained on the £2.)

Original reverse designs

The original standard-issue decimal coinage reverse designs are as follows:

½p (discontinued 1984) — A crown, symbolising the monarch.
1p — A crowned portcullis with chains (the badge of the Houses of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

).
2p — The Prince of Wales's feathers
Prince of Wales's feathers
The Prince of Wales's feathers is the heraldic badge of the Heir Apparent to the British and Commonwealth Realms thrones. It consists of three white feathers emerging from a gold coronet. A ribbon below the coronet bears the motto Ich dien...

: a plume of ostrich
Ostrich
The Ostrich is one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member of the genus Struthio. Some analyses indicate that the Somali Ostrich may be better considered a full species apart from the Common Ostrich, but most taxonomists consider it to be a...

feather
Feather
Feathers are one of the epidermal growths that form the distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on birds and some non-avian theropod dinosaurs. They are considered the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates, and indeed a premier example of a complex evolutionary novelty. They...

s within a coronet
Coronet
A coronet is a small crown consisting of ornaments fixed on a metal ring. Unlike a crown, a coronet never has arches.The word stems from the Old French coronete, a diminutive of coronne , itself from the Latin corona .Traditionally, such headgear is – as indicated by the German equivalent...

.
5p — A crowned thistle
Thistle
Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles often occur all over the plant – on surfaces such as those of the stem and flat parts of leaves. These are an adaptation that protects the...

, formally "The Badge of Scotland, a thistle royally crowned".
10p — A crowned lion, part of the British Coat of Arms (and often is the national animal of the UK)
20p — A crowned Tudor Rose
Tudor rose
The Tudor Rose is the traditional floral heraldic emblem of England and takes its name and origins from the Tudor dynasty.-Origins:...

, a traditional heraldic emblem of England (NB With incuse design and lettering).
50p — Britannia
Britannia
Britannia is an ancient term for Great Britain, and also a female personification of the island. The name is Latin, and derives from the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which originally designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Great Britain. However, by the...

and lion.
£1 — Numerous different designs (see below).
£2 — An abstract design of concentric circles, representing technological development from the Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

to the modern day electronic age.

Up until the 2008 redesign, the reverse designs of the one pound coin have followed a five-year cycle. This cycle successively represents each of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom, namely Scotland

Scotland

, Wales

Wales

, Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

and England

England

, with the Royal Coat of Arms used in every fifth year:

Royal designs	Themed designs
Royal designs	Theme	Scotland	Wales	Northern Ireland	England
1983: Royal Coat of Arms Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom is the official coat of arms of the British monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II. These arms are used by the Queen in her official capacity as monarch of the United Kingdom, and are officially known as her Arms of Dominion...	National plants	1984: Thistle Cotton thistle Onopordum acanthium , is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to Europe and Western Asia from the Iberian Peninsula east to Kazakhstan, and north to central Scandinavia, and widely naturalised elsewhere...	1985: Leek Leek The leek, Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum , also sometimes known as Allium porrum, is a vegetable which belongs, along with the onion and garlic, to family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Allioideae...	1986: Flax Flax Flax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent...	1987: Oak Oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
1988: Crown over Royal shield	National plants	1989: Thistle Cotton thistle Onopordum acanthium , is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to Europe and Western Asia from the Iberian Peninsula east to Kazakhstan, and north to central Scandinavia, and widely naturalised elsewhere...	1990: Leek Leek The leek, Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum , also sometimes known as Allium porrum, is a vegetable which belongs, along with the onion and garlic, to family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Allioideae...	1991: Flax Flax Flax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent...	1992: Oak Oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
1993: Royal Coat of Arms Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom is the official coat of arms of the British monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II. These arms are used by the Queen in her official capacity as monarch of the United Kingdom, and are officially known as her Arms of Dominion...	National symbols	1994: Lion Rampant Royal Standard of Scotland The Royal Standard of Scotland, , also known as the Banner of the King of Scots, or more commonly the Lion Rampant of Scotland, is the Scottish Royal Banner of Arms...	1995: Welsh dragon	1996: Celtic cross Celtic cross A Celtic cross is a symbol that combines a cross with a ring surrounding the intersection. In the Celtic Christian world it was combined with the Christian cross and this design was often used for high crosses – a free-standing cross made of stone and often richly decorated...	1997: The three lions Coat of arms of England In heraldry, the Royal Arms of England is a coat of arms symbolising England and its monarchs. Its blazon is Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or armed and langued Azure, meaning three identical gold lions with blue tongues and claws, walking and facing the observer, arranged in a column...
1998: Royal Coat of Arms Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom is the official coat of arms of the British monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II. These arms are used by the Queen in her official capacity as monarch of the United Kingdom, and are officially known as her Arms of Dominion...	National symbols	1999: Lion Rampant	2000: Welsh dragon	2001: Celtic cross Celtic cross A Celtic cross is a symbol that combines a cross with a ring surrounding the intersection. In the Celtic Christian world it was combined with the Christian cross and this design was often used for high crosses – a free-standing cross made of stone and often richly decorated...	2002: The three lions Coat of arms of England In heraldry, the Royal Arms of England is a coat of arms symbolising England and its monarchs. Its blazon is Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or armed and langued Azure, meaning three identical gold lions with blue tongues and claws, walking and facing the observer, arranged in a column...
2003: Royal Coat of Arms Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom is the official coat of arms of the British monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II. These arms are used by the Queen in her official capacity as monarch of the United Kingdom, and are officially known as her Arms of Dominion...	Bridges	2004: Forth Bridge Forth Bridge The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge over the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, to the east of the Forth Road Bridge, and 14 kilometres west of central Edinburgh. It was opened on 4 March 1890, and spans a total length of...	2005: Menai Suspension Bridge Menai Suspension Bridge The Menai Suspension Bridge is a suspension bridge between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales. Designed by Thomas Telford and completed in 1826, it was the first modern suspension bridge in the world.-Construction:...	2006: MacNeill's Egyptian Arch MacNeill's Egyptian Arch MacNeill's Egyptian Arch is a railway bridge in Newry, Northern Ireland. Construction was completed in 1851 for the Dublin and Belfast Junction Railway Company and was the result of collaboration between engineer Sir John Macneill and constructor William Dargan...	2007: Gateshead Millennium Bridge Gateshead Millennium Bridge The Gateshead Millennium Bridge is a pedestrian and cyclist tilt bridge spanning the River Tyne in England between Gateshead's Quays arts quarter on the south bank, and the Quayside of Newcastle upon Tyne on the north bank. The award-winning structure was conceived and designed by architects...

Royal Shield reverse

The 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p and 50p coin designs post 2008 each depict a part of the Royal Shield

Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom

, and form the whole shield when they are placed together in the appropriate arrangement. The Royal Shield is seen in its entirety on the £1 coin.

The 1p coin depicts the lower part of the first quarter and the upper part of the third quarter of the shield, showing the lions passant of England and the harp of Ireland respectively
The 2p coin depicts most of the second quarter of the shield, showing the lion rampant of Scotland
The 5p coin depicts the centre of the shield, showing the meeting and parts of the constituent parts of the shield
The 10p coin depicts most of the first quarter of the shield, containing the three lions passant of England
The 20p coin depicts the lower part of the second quarter and upper part of the fourth quarter, showing the lion rampant of Scotland and the lions passant of England respectively
The 50p coin depicts the point of the shield and the bottom portions of the second and third quarters showing the harp of Ireland and lions passant of England respectively
The £1 coin depicts the whole of the Royal Shield
The standard-issue £2 coin design remains unchanged

Edge designs

The 1p, 2p, 20p and 50p coins have smooth edges. The 5p, 10p, £1 and £2 coins have milled edges. The milling, in combination with the non-circular shape of the 20p and 50p, serve as the primary means of identification and differentiation between coinage for blind

Blindness

Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...

or visually impaired people. Historically, milling also served to discourage coin clipping

Coin clipping

.

The £1 coin and £2 coins have, inscribed into the milling, words or a decoration related to their face design. Many issues of the £1 coin carry one of the following edge inscriptions:

DECUS ET TUTAMEN — Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

for "An ornament and a safeguard", a phrase taken from Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...

's Aeneid
Aeneid
The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...

, and here referring to the fact that the inscription serves both as a decorative feature and as a safeguard against the clipping
Coin clipping
Coin debasement is the act of decreasing the amount of precious metal in a coin, while continuing to circulate it at face value. This was frequently done by governments in order to inflate the amount of currency in circulation; typically, some of the precious metal was replaced by a cheaper metal...

of the coin's edges (this is not a modern concern, but harks back to the days when circulating coins were made of precious metals). This appears on coins with English-themed, Northern Irish-themed or general UK-themed designs.
PLEIDIOL WYF I'M GWLAD — Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

for "True am I to my country", from the Welsh national anthem
Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau
Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau is the national anthem of Wales. The title – taken from the first words of the song – means "Old Land of My Fathers", usually rendered in English as simply "Land of My Fathers". The words were written by Evan James and the tune composed by his son, James James, both residents...

. This appears on coins with Welsh-themed designs.
NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT
Nemo me impune lacessit
Nemo me impune lacessit is the Latin motto of the Order of the Thistle and of three Scottish regiments of the British Army. The motto also appears, in conjunction with the collar of the Order of the Thistle, in later versions of the Royal coat of arms of the Kingdom of Scotland and subsequently in...

— Latin for "No-one provokes me with impunity", the motto of the Order of the Thistle
Order of the Thistle
The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle is an order of chivalry associated with Scotland. The current version of the Order was founded in 1687 by King James VII of Scotland who asserted that he was reviving an earlier Order...

. This appears on coins with Scottish-themed designs.

The standard-issue £2 coin

British Two Pound coin

The British two pound coin was first issued as a commemorative coin in 1986 to celebrate the Commonwealth Games in Scotland. Six further commemorative issues followed between 1989 and 1996...

carries the edge inscription STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS

Standing on the shoulders of giants

Dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants is a Western metaphor meaning "One who develops future intellectual pursuits by understanding the research and works created by notable thinkers of the past," a contemporary interpretation. However, the metaphor was first recorded in the twelfth century...

. Other designs of the coin are issued from time to time to commemorate special events or anniversaries. These may have special edge inscriptions relevant to the theme, or the edge inscription may be replaced by a decorative motif.

Commemorative designs

Circulating fifty pence

British Fifty Pence coin

The British decimal fifty pence coin – often pronounced "fifty pee" – was issued on 14 October 1969 in the run-up to decimalisation to replace the ten shilling note...

and two pound

British Two Pound coin

The British two pound coin was first issued as a commemorative coin in 1986 to celebrate the Commonwealth Games in Scotland. Six further commemorative issues followed between 1989 and 1996...

coins have been issued with various commemorative reverse designs, typically to mark the anniversaries of historical events or the births of notable people.

Three commemorative designs were issued of the large version of the 50p: in 1973 (the EEC), 1992–3 (EC presidency) and 1994 (D-Day anniversary). Commemorative designs of the smaller 50p coin have been issued (alongside the Britannia standard issue) in 1998 (two designs), 2000, and from 2003 to 2007 yearly (two designs in 2006). For a complete list, see Fifty pence (British decimal coin).

Prior to 1997, the two pound coin was minted in commemorative issues only – in 1986, 1989, 1994, 1995 and 1996. Commemorative £2 coins have been regularly issued since 1999, alongside the standard-issue bi-metallic coins which were introduced in 1997. One or two designs have been minted each year, with the exception of none in 2000, and four regional 2002 issues marking the 2002 Commonwealth Games

2002 Commonwealth Games

The 2002 Commonwealth Games were held in Manchester, England from 25 July to 4 August 2002. The XVII Commonwealth Games was the largest multi-sport event ever to be held in the UK, eclipsing London's 1948 Summer Olympics in numbers of teams and athletes participating.After the 1996 Manchester...

in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

. As well as a distinct reverse design, these coins have an edge inscription relevant to the subject. The anniversary themes are continued until at least 2009, with two designs announced. For a complete list, see Two pounds (British decimal coin).

Non-UK coinage

Outside the United Kingdom, the British Crown Dependencies, consisting of the Isle of Man

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...

and the Channel Island

Channel Islands

The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...

bailiwick

Bailiwick

A bailiwick is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and may also apply to a territory in which the sheriff's functions were exercised by a privately appointed bailiff under a royal or imperial writ. The word is now more generally used in a metaphorical sense, to indicate a sphere of...

s of Jersey

Jersey

Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...

and Guernsey

Guernsey

Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...

, use the pound sterling as their currencies. However, they produce their own local issues of coinage, in the same denominations and to the same specifications as the UK, but with different designs. These circulate freely alongside UK coinage and English, Northern Irish and Scottish banknotes. The island of Alderney

Alderney

Alderney is the most northerly of the Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency. It is long and wide. The area is , making it the third-largest island of the Channel Islands, and the second largest in the Bailiwick...

also produces occasional commemorative coins. (See coins of the Jersey pound, coins of the Guernsey pound, coins of the Manx pound and Alderney pound
Alderney pound
The island of Alderney has its own currency, which by law must be the same as the United Kingdom .Schedule 2 of the Government of Alderney Law provides that the States of Alderney may, by Ordinance, prescribe "the legal currency and denominations of the legal currency, so however that that...

for details.)

The pound sterling is also the official currency of the British overseas territories

British overseas territories

The British Overseas Territories are fourteen territories of the United Kingdom which, although they do not form part of the United Kingdom itself, fall under its jurisdiction. They are remnants of the British Empire that have not acquired independence or have voted to remain British territories...

of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote and inhospitable collection of islands, consisting of South Georgia and a chain of smaller islands, known as the South Sandwich...

, British Antarctic Territory

British Antarctic Territory

The British Antarctic Territory is a sector of Antarctica claimed by the United Kingdom as one of its 14 British Overseas Territories. It comprises the region south of 60°S latitude and between longitudes and , forming a wedge shape that extends to the South Pole...

and Tristan da Cunha

Tristan da Cunha

Tristan da Cunha is a remote volcanic group of islands in the south Atlantic Ocean and the main island of that group. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying from the nearest land, South Africa, and from South America...

. South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands produces occasional special collectors' sets of coins. In 2008, British Antarctic Territory issued a £2 coin commemorating the centenary of Britain's claim to the region.

The currencies of the British overseas territories

British overseas territories

of Gibraltar

Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...

, The Falkland Islands and Saint Helena

Saint Helena

Saint Helena , named after St Helena of Constantinople, is an island of volcanic origin in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha which also includes Ascension Island and the islands of Tristan da Cunha...

/Ascension

Ascension Island

Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island in the equatorial waters of the South Atlantic Ocean, around from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America, which is roughly midway between the horn of South America and Africa...

— namely the Gibraltar pound

Gibraltar pound

The Gibraltar pound is the currency of Gibraltar. It is exchangeable with the UK pound sterling at par value.-History:...

, Falkland Islands pound

Falkland Islands pound

The pound is the currency of the Falkland Islands, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic Ocean. The symbol is the pound sign, £, or alternatively FK£, to distinguish it from other pound-denominated currencies...

and Saint Helena pound

Saint Helena pound

The Saint Helena pound is the currency of the Atlantic islands of Saint Helena and Ascension, which are constituents of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha...

— are pegged one-to-one to the pound sterling but are technically separate currencies. These territories issue their own coinage, again with the same denominations and specifications as the UK coinage but with local designs, as coins of the Gibraltar pound, coins of the Falkland Islands pound and coins of the Saint Helena pound.

The other British overseas territories do not use the pound as their official currency.

25p and £5 coins

Although these coins are in practice very rarely found in circulation, they are for convenience described with the circulating coins, above.

Maundy money

is a ceremonial coinage traditionally given to the poor, and nowadays awarded annually to deserving senior citizens. There are Maundy coins in denominations of one, two, three and four pence. They bear dates from 1822 to the present and are minted in very small quantities. Though they are legal tender in the UK, they are never encountered in circulation. The pre-decimal Maundy pieces have the same legal tender status and value as post-decimal ones, and effectively increased in face value by 140% upon decimalisation. Their numismatic value is much greater.

Maundy coins still bear the original portrait of the Queen as used in the circulating coins of the first years of her reign.

Bullion coinage

The traditional bullion coin issued by Britain is the gold sovereign, formerly a circulating coin with a face value of one pound. The Royal Mint continues to produce gold sovereigns and half sovereigns, with 2008 list prices of, respectively, £215 and £110.

Since 1987 a series of bullion coins, the Britannia

Britannia coin

, has been issued, containing 1 troy ounces (31.1 g), 1/2 ozt, 1/4 ozt, and 1/10 ozt of fine gold at a millesimal fineness

Millesimal fineness

Millesimal fineness is a system of denoting the purity of platinum, gold and silver alloys by parts per thousand of pure metal by mass in the alloy. For example, an alloy containing 75% gold is denoted as "750". Many European countries use decimal hallmark stamps Millesimal fineness is a system of...

of 917 (22 carat) and with face values of £100, £50, £25, and £10.

Since 1997 silver bullion coins have also been produced under the name “Britannias”. The alloy used is Britannia silver

Britannia silver

Britannia silver is an alloy of silver containing 95.84% silver, with the balance usually copper.This standard was introduced in England by Act of Parliament in 1697 to replace sterling silver as the obligatory standard for items of "wrought plate"...

(millesimal fineness 958). The silver coins are available in 1 troy ounces (31.1 g), 1/2 ozt, 1/4 ozt, and 1/10 ozt sizes.

The Royal Mint also issues silver, gold and platinum proof sets of the circulating coins, as well as gift products such as gold coins set into jewellery.

Pre-decimal coinage

For further information about the history of pre-decimal coinage, see Pound sterling
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

. See also Decimal Day
Decimal Day
Decimal Day was the day the United Kingdom and Ireland decimalised their currencies.-Old system:Under the old currency of pounds, shillings and pence, the pound was made up of 240 pence , with 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings in a...

.

System

Before decimalisation in 1971, the pound was divided into 240 pence rather than 100, though it was rarely expressed in this way. Rather it was expressed in terms of pounds, shilling

Shilling

The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...

s and pence, where:

£1 = 20 shillings (20s).
1 shilling = 12 pence (12d).

Thus: £1 = 240 pence. The penny was further subdivided at various times, though these divisions vanished as inflation

Inflation

In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation also reflects an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a...

made them irrelevant:

1 penny = 2 halfpennies and (earlier) 4 farthings (half farthing
Half farthing (British coin)
The half farthing British coin was produced in various years between 1828 and 1856 .The coin was initially produced in 1828 for use in Ceylon, and again in 1830...

, a third of a farthing
Third farthing (British coin)
The third farthing was a British coin which was produced in various years between 1827 and 1913.The coin was produced in 1827 exclusively for use in Malta, but it is considered to be part of the British coinage as at that time Malta was considered more as a part of Britain than a colony...

, and quarter farthing
Quarter farthing (British coin)
The quarter farthing was a British coin, produced for circulation in Ceylon in various years between 1839 and 1853 . It is the lowest denomination of coin ever minted for the United Kingdom...

coins were minted in the late 19th century, and into the early 20th century in the case of the third farthing, but circulated only in certain British colonies and not in the UK).

Using the example of five shillings and sixpence, the standard ways of writing shillings and pence were:

5s 6d
5/6 (see below for the / mark)
5/- for 5 shillings only, with the dash to stand for zero pennies.

The sum of 5/6 would be spoken as "five shillings and sixpence" or "five and six".

The abbreviation for the old penny, d, was derived from the Roman denarius
Denarius
In the Roman currency system, the denarius was a small silver coin first minted in 211 BC. It was the most common coin produced for circulation but was slowly debased until its replacement by the antoninianus...

, and the abbreviation for the shilling, s, from the Roman solidus
Solidus (coin)
The solidus was originally a gold coin issued by the Romans, and a weight measure for gold more generally, corresponding to 4.5 grams.-Roman and Byzantine coinage:...

. The shilling was also denoted by the slash symbol, also called a solidus

Solidus (punctuation)

The solidus is a punctuation mark used to indicate fractions including fractional currency. It may also be called a shilling mark, an in-line fraction bar, or a fraction slash....

for this reason, which was originally an adaptation of the long s

Long s

The long, medial or descending s is a form of the minuscule letter s formerly used where s occurred in the middle or at the beginning of a word, for example "ſinfulneſs" . The modern letterform was called the terminal, round, or short s.-History:The long s is derived from the old Roman cursive...

. The symbol "£", for the pound, is derived from the first letter of the Latin

Latin

word for pound, libra.

A similar pre-decimal system operated in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, also based on the Roman currency

Roman currency

The Roman currency during most of the Roman Republic and the western half of the Roman Empire consisted of coins including the aureus , the denarius , the sestertius , the dupondius , and the as...

, consisting of the livre
Livre tournois
The livre tournois |pound]]) was:#one of numerous currencies used in France in the Middle Ages; and#a unit of account used in France in the Middle Ages and the early modern period.-Circulating currency:...

(L) sol or sou (s) and denier (d). Until 1816 another similar system was used in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, consisting of the gulden
Guilder
Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch gulden — from Old Dutch for 'golden'. The guilder originated as a gold coin but has been a common name for a silver or base metal coin for some centuries...

(G), stuiver
Stuiver
The stuiver was a pre-decimal coin used in the Netherlands It was worth 16 penning or 8 duit. Twenty stuivers equalled a guilder.It circulated until the Napoleonic Wars...

(s; 1/20 G) and duit, (d; 1/8 s or 1/160 G).

Denominations

For an extensive list of historical pre-decimal coin denominations, see List of British banknotes and coins.

In the years just prior to decimalisation, the circulating British coins were:

Half crown
Half crown (British coin)
The half crown was a denomination of British money worth half of a crown, equivalent to two and a half shillings , or one-eighth of a pound. The half crown was first issued in 1549, in the reign of Edward VI...

(2/6)
Florin or two shillings (2/-)
Shilling (1/-)
Sixpence
British sixpence coin
The sixpence, known colloquially as the tanner, or half-shilling, was a British pre-decimal coin, worth six pence, or 1/40th of a pound sterling....

(6d)
Threepence (3d) (usually pronounced "throopence", "thruppence" or similar)
Penny
British One Penny coin (pre-decimal)
The English Penny, originally a coin of 1.3 to 1.5 g pure silver, includes the penny introduced around the year 785 by King Offa of Mercia. However, his coins were similar in size and weight to the continental deniers of the period, and to the Anglo-Saxon sceats which had gone before it, which were...

(1d)
Halfpenny
British Halfpenny coin
The British halfpenny coin was worth 1/480th of a pound sterling. At first in its 700 year history it was made from silver but as the value of silver increased, the coin was made from base metals. It was finally abandoned in 1969 as part of the process of decimalising the British currency...

(½d) (usually pronounced HAY-p'nee)

The farthing (¼d) had been withdrawn in 1960. The crown (5/-) was issued periodically as a commemorative coin but was rarely found in circulation.

The crown, half crown, florin, shilling and sixpence were cupro-nickel coins (in historical times silver or silver alloy); the penny, halfpenny and farthing were bronze; and the threepence was a twelve-sided nickel-brass coin (historically it was a small silver coin).

Some of the pre-decimalisation coins with exact decimal equivalent values continued in use after 1971 alongside the new coins, albeit with new names, (the shilling

Shilling

became equivalent to the 5p coin, with the florin equating to 10p). The others were withdrawn almost immediately. The use of florins and shillings as legal tender

Legal tender

Legal tender is a medium of payment allowed by law or recognized by a legal system to be valid for meeting a financial obligation. Paper currency is a common form of legal tender in many countries....

in this way ended in 1990 and 1992 when the 5p and 10p coins were replaced with smaller versions. Indeed, while pre-decimalisation shillings were used as 5p coins, for a while after decimalisation many people continued to call the new 5p coin a shilling, since it remained 1/20 of a pound, but was now worth 5p instead of 12d. The pre-decimalisation sixpence, also known as a sixpenny bit or sixpenny piece, was rated at 2½p but was demonetised in 1980.

Slang and everyday usage

Some pre-decimalisation coins or denominations became commonly known by colloquial and slang terms, perhaps the most well known being bob for a shilling

Shilling (United Kingdom)

The British shilling is an historic British coin from the eras of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the later United Kingdom; also adopted as a Scot denomination upon the 1707 Treaty of Union....

, and quid
Quid
Quid may refer to:* Pound sterling, British slang for £1 in currency* Euro , in Irish slang* Irish punt, Irish slang* Australian pound, Australian slang * Quid , a French encyclopedia...

for a pound. A farthing

British Farthing coin

A farthing was a coin of England, Great Britain, and finally of the United Kingdom, worth one quarter of a penny, 1/960th of a pound sterling...

was a mag, a silver threepence was a joey and the later nickel-brass threepence was called a threepenny bit ; a sixpence was a tanner, the two-shilling coin or florin was a two-bob bit. Bob is still used in phrases such as "earn/worth a bob or two", and "bob‐a‐job week". The two shillings and sixpence coin or half-crown was a half dollar
Dollar
The dollar is the name of the official currency of many countries, including Australia, Belize, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States.-Etymology:...

, also sometimes referred to as two and a kick. A value of two pence was universally pronounced ˈtʌpəns tuppence, a usage which is still heard today, especially among older people. The unaccented suffix "-pence", pronounced pəns, was similarly appended to the other numbers up to twelve; thus "fourpence", "sixpence-three-farthings", "twelvepence-ha'penny", but "eighteen pence" (another way of saying "one-and-six").

Quid remains as popular slang for one or more pounds to this day in Britain

United Kingdom

in the form "a quid" and then "two quid", and so on. Similarly, in some parts of the country, bob continued to represent one-twentieth of a pound, that is five new pence, and two bob is 10p.

The introduction of decimal currency caused a new casual usage to emerge, where any value in pence is spoken using the suffix pee: e.g. "twenty-three pee" or, in the early years, "two-and-a-half pee" rather than the previous "tuppence-ha'penny". Amounts over a pound are normally spoken thus: "five pounds forty". A value with less than ten pence over the pound is sometimes spoken like this: "one pound and a penny", "three pounds and fourpence". The slang term "bit" has almost disappeared from use completely, although in Scotland a fifty pence is sometimes referred to as a "ten bob bit". Decimal denomination coins are generally described using the terms piece or coin, for example "a fifty-pee piece", a "ten-pence coin".

Minting errors reaching circulation

Coins with errors in the minting process that reach circulation are often seen as valuable items by coin collectors

Numismatics

Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. While numismatists are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, the discipline also includes the broader study of money and other payment media used to resolve debts and the...

.

In 1983 the Royal Mint mistakenly produced some two pence

Two pence (British decimal coin)

pieces with the old wording "New Pence" on the reverse (tails) side, when the design had been changed from 1982 to "Two Pence".

In June 2009 the Royal Mint estimated that between 50,000 and 200,000 dateless 20 pence coins had entered circulation, the first undated British coin to enter circulation in more than 300 years. It resulted from the accidental combination of old and new face tooling

Coining (mint)

In minting, coining is the process of manufacturing coins using a kind of stamping which is now generically known in metalworking as "coining".A coin die is one of the two metallic pieces that are used to strike one side of a coin...

in a production batch, creating what is known as a mule

Mule (coin)

, following the 2008 redesign which moved the date from the reverse (tails) to the obverse (heads) side.

Titles

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

Offa of Mercia

, which were inscribed with the legend OFFA REX "King Offa". As the legends became longer, words in the inscriptions were often abbreviated so that they could fit on the coin; identical legends have often been abbreviated in different ways depending upon the size and decoration of the coin. Inscriptions which go around the edge of the coin generally have started at the center of the top edge and proceeded in a clockwise direction. A very lengthy legend would be continued on the reverse side of the coin.

More recent legends include the following, in unabbreviated form:

HENRICUS VII DEI GRATIA REX ANGLIAE & FRANCIAE "Henry VII
Henry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....

by the Grace of God, King of England and France". France had been claimed by the English continuously since 1369.

HENRICUS VIII DEI GRATIA REX ANGLIAE & FRANCIAE "Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

by the Grace of God, King of England and France". The Arabic numeral 8 was also used instead of the Roman VIII.

HENRICUS VIII DEI GRATIA ANGLIAE FRANCIAE & HIBERNIAE REX "Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

by the Grace of God, Of England, France and Ireland, King". Henry VIII made Ireland a kingdom in 1541. The Arabic numeral 8 was also used instead of the Roman VIII.

PHILIPPUS ET MARIA DEI GRATIA REX & REGINA "Philip
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....

and Mary
Mary I of England
Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...

by the Grace of God, King and Queen". The names of the realms were omitted from the coin for reasons of space.

ELIZABETH DEI GRATIA ANGLIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REGINA "Elizabeth
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...

, by the Grace of God, of England, France, and Ireland, Queen".

IACOBUS DEI GRATIA MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REX "James
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King". James, King of Scotland, by succeeding to the English throne united the two kingdoms in his person; he dubbed the combination of the two kingdoms "Great Britain" (the name of the whole island) though they remained legislatively distinct for more than a century afterwards.

CAROLUS DEI GRATIA MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REX "Charles
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King".

OLIVARIUS DEI GRATIA REIPUBLICAE ANGLIAE SCOTIAE HIBERNIAE & CETERORUM PROTECTOR "Oliver
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

, by the Grace of God, of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland etc., Protector". Cromwell ruled as a monarch but did not claim the title of king.

CAROLUS II DEI GRATIA MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REX "Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King".

IACOBUS II DEI GRATIA MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REX "James II
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...

, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King".

GULIELMUS ET MARIA DEI GRATIA MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REX ET REGINA "William
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...

and Mary
Mary II of England
Mary II was joint Sovereign of England, Scotland, and Ireland with her husband and first cousin, William III and II, from 1689 until her death. William and Mary, both Protestants, became king and queen regnant, respectively, following the Glorious Revolution, which resulted in the deposition of...

by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King and Queen". The spouses William and Mary ruled jointly.

GULIELMUS III DEI GRATIA MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REX "William III
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...

by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King". William continued to rule alone after his wife's death.

ANNA DEI GRATIA MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REGINA "Anne
Anne of Great Britain
Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Act of Union, two of her realms, England and Scotland, were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.Anne's Catholic father, James II and VII, was deposed during the...

by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Queen".

GEORGIUS DEI GRATIA MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REX FIDEI DEFENSOR BRUNSVICENSIS ET LUNEBURGENSIS DUX SACRI ROMANI IMPERII ARCHITHESAURARIUS ET ELECTOR "George
George I of Great Britain
George I was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 until his death, and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698....

by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, of Brunswick and Lüneburg
Brunswick-Lüneburg
The Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg , or more properly Duchy of Brunswick and Lüneburg, was an historical ducal state from the late Middle Ages until the late Early Modern era within the North-Western domains of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, in what is now northern Germany...

Duke, of the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...

Archtreasurer and Elector
Prince-elector
The Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire were the members of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Roman king or, from the middle of the 16th century onwards, directly the Holy Roman Emperor.The heir-apparent to a prince-elector was known as an...

." George I added the titles he already possessed as Elector of Hanover
Electorate of Hanover
The Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg was the ninth Electorate of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation...

. He also added the title "Defender of the Faith
Defender of the Faith
Defender of the Faith may refer to:*Fidei defensor , a title of several European Christian monarchs.*Defender of the Faith, a title of the heads of the ruling Solomonic dynasty of the former Ethiopian Empire....

", which had been borne by the English kings since Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

, but which had previously only rarely appeared on coins.

GEORGIUS II DEI GRATIA MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REX FIDEI DEFENSOR BRUNSVICENSIS ET LUNEBURGENSIS DUX SACRI ROMANI IMPERII ARCHITHESAURARIUS ET ELECTOR "George II
George II of Great Britain
George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany...

by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, of Brunswick and Lüneburg Duke, of the Holy Roman Empire Archtreasurer and Elector."

GEORGIUS III DEI GRATIA MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REX FIDEI DEFENSOR BRUNSVICENSIS ET LUNEBURGENSIS DUX SACRI ROMANI IMPERII ARCHITHESAURARIUS ET ELECTOR "George III
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...

by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, of Brunswick and Lüneburg Duke, of the Holy Roman Empire Archtreasurer and Elector."

GEORGIUS III DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM REX FIDEI DEFENSOR "George III, by the Grace of God, of the Britons King, Defender of the Faith." By the Acts of Union 1800, Ireland was united with Great Britain into a single kingdom, which is represented on the coinage by the genitive of the Latin Britanniarum "Britains" (often abbreviated BRITT), signifying "The United Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland". At the same time the United Kingdom abandoned the traditional claim to the throne of France, which had become a Republic, and the other titles were dropped from the coinage.

GEORGIUS IIII (IV) DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM REX FIDEI DEFENSOR "George IV
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...

, by the Grace of God, of the Britains King, Defender of the Faith." The Roman numeral "4" is represented by both IIII and IV in different issues.

GULIELMUS IIII DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM REX FIDEI DEFENSOR "William IV
William IV of the United Kingdom
William IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death...

, by the Grace of God, of the Britains King, Defender of the Faith."

VICTORIA DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM REGINA FIDEI DEFENSOR "Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....

, by the Grace of God, of the Britains Queen, Defender of the Faith."

VICTORIA DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM REGINA FIDEI DEFENSOR INDIAE IMPERATRIX "Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....

, by the Grace of God, of the Britains Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India
Emperor of India
Emperor/Empress of India was used as a title by the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah II, and revived by the colonial British monarchs during the British Raj in India....

." Queen Victoria was granted the title "Empress of India" in 1876.

EDWARDUS VII DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM OMNIUM REX FIDEI DEFENSOR INDIAE IMPERATOR "Edward VII
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...

, by the Grace of God, of all the Britains King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India." Edward VII's coins added OMNIUM "all" after "Britains" to imply a rule over the British overseas colonies as well as the United Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

GEORGIUS V DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM OMNIUM REX FIDEI DEFENSOR INDIAE IMPERATOR "George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....

, by the Grace of God, of all the Britains King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India."

GEORGIUS VI DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM OMNIUM REX FIDEI DEFENSOR INDIAE IMPERATOR "George VI
George VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...

, by the Grace of God, of all the Britains King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India."

GEORGIUS VI DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM OMNIUM REX FIDEI DEFENSOR "George VI
George VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...

, by the Grace of God, of all the Britains King, Defender of the Faith." The title "Emperor of India" was abandoned in 1948, after the independence of India and Pakistan.

ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM OMNIUM REGINA FIDEI DEFENSOR "Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

, by the Grace of God, of all the Britains Queen, Defender of the Faith."

ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA FIDEI DEFENSOR "Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

, by the Grace of God, Queen, Defender of the Faith." The "of all the Britains" was dropped from the coinage in 1954, and current coins do not name any realm.

Mottos

In addition to the title, a Latin or French motto might be included, generally on the reverse side of the coin. These varied between denominations and issues; some were personal to the monarch, others were more general. Some of the mottos were:

POSUI DEUM ADIUTOREM MEUM "I have made God my helper". Coins of Henry VII
Henry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....

, Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

, Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...

. Possibly refers to Psalms 52:7, Ecce homo qui non posuit Deum adjutorem suum "Behold the man who did not make God his helper".

RUTILANS ROSA SINE SPINA "A dazzling rose without a thorn". Coins of Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

and Edward VI
Edward VI of England
Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...

. Initially on the unsuccessful and very rare Crown of the Rose
Crown of the Rose (coin)
A Crown of the Rose is an extremely rare gold coin of the Kingdom of England introduced in 1526 during the reign of Henry VIII, in an attempt to compete with the French ecu au soleil...

of Henry VIII and continued on subsequent small gold coinage into the reign of Edward VI.

POSUIMUS DEUM ADIUTOREM NOSTRUM "We have made God our helper". Coins of Philip
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....

and Mary
Mary I of England
Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...

. The same as above, but with a plural subject.

FACIAM EOS IN GENTEM UNAM "I shall make them into one nation". Coins of James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

, signifying his desire to unite the English and Scottish nations. Refers to Ezekiel
Ezekiel
Ezekiel , "God will strengthen" , is the central protagonist of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible. In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Ezekiel is acknowledged as a Hebrew prophet...

37:2 in the Vulgate
Vulgate
The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...

Bible.

CHRISTO AUSPICE REGNO "I reign with Christ as my protector". Coins of Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

.

EXURGAT DEUS DISSIPENTUR INIMICI "May God rise up, may [his] enemies be scattered". Coins of Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

, during the Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

. Refers to Psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...

67:1 in the Vulgate
Vulgate
The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...

Bible.

PAX QUAERITUR BELLO "Peace is sought by war". Coins of the Protectorate
The Protectorate
In British history, the Protectorate was the period 1653–1659 during which the Commonwealth of England was governed by a Lord Protector.-Background:...

; personal motto of Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

.

BRITANNIA "Britain". Reign of Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

to George III
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...

. Found on pennies and smaller denominations.

HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE. "Shamed be he who thinks ill of it." Sovereigns of George III
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...

. Motto of the Order of the Garter
Order of the Garter
The Most Noble Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, is the highest order of chivalry, or knighthood, existing in England. The order is dedicated to the image and arms of St...

.
DECUS ET TUTAMEN. "A decoration and protection." Some pound coins of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

and some crown coins including some of Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....

and George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....

. Refers to the inscribed edge as a protection against the clipping of precious metal, as well as being a complimentary reference to the monarch.

External links

Coins of England and Great Britain
British Coin Denominations
British Coinage Specifications and Statistics from the Royal Mint
Royal Mint
The Royal Mint is the body permitted to manufacture, or mint, coins in the United Kingdom. The Mint originated over 1,100 years ago, but since 2009 it operates as Royal Mint Ltd, a company which has an exclusive contract with HM Treasury to supply all coinage for the UK...

's website
Coin Designs — Royal Mint competition designs
British Coins — catalogue

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