The

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

crown was a denomination of sterling coinage worth of one pound, or 5

shillings The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence or ...

, or 60 (old) pence. The crown was first issued during the reign of

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first E ...

, as part of the coinage of the

Kingdom of England The Kingdom of England (, ) was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 12 July 927, when it emerged from various History of Anglo-Saxon England, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Kingdom of Scotland, ...

. Always a heavy silver coin weighing around one

ounce The ounce () is any of several different units of mass, weight or volume and is derived almost unchanged from the , an Ancient Roman unit of measurement. The avoirdupois ounce (exactly ) is avoirdupois pound; this is the United States customa ...

, during the 19th and 20th centuries the crown declined from being a real means of exchange to being a coin rarely spent, and minted for commemorative purposes only. Unlike in some territories of the British Empire (such as

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

), in the UK the crown was never replaced as circulating currency by a five-shilling banknote. "Decimal" crowns were minted a few times after decimalisation of the British currency in 1971, initially with a nominal value of 25 (new) pence. However, commemorative crowns issued since 1990 have a face value of five pounds.

History

The coin's origins lie in the English silver crown, one of many

silver coin Silver coins are considered the oldest mass-produced form of coinage. Silver has been used as a coinage metal since the times of the Greeks; their silver drachmas were popular trade coins. The ancient Persians used silver coins between 612–33 ...

s that appeared in various countries from the 16th century onwards (most famously the Spanish

piece of eight The Spanish dollar, also known as the piece of eight ( es, Real de a ocho, , , or ), is a silver coin of approximately diameter worth eight Spanish reales. It was minted in the Spanish Empire following a monetary reform in 1497 with content ...

), all of similar size and weight (approx 38mm diameter, 25g

fine silver The fineness of a precious metal object (coin, bar, jewelry, etc.) represents the weight of ''fine metal'' therein, in proportion to the total weight which includes alloying base metals and any impurities. Alloy metals are added to increase hard ...

) and thus interchangeable in international trade. The Kingdom of England also minted gold Crowns until early in the reign of Charles II. The dies for all gold and silver coins of Queen Anne and King George I were engraved by John Croker, a migrant originally from

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

in the

Duchy of Saxony The Duchy of Saxony ( nds, Hartogdom Sassen, german: Herzogtum Sachsen) was originally the area settled by the Saxons in the late Early Middle Ages, when they were subdued by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars from 772 and incorporated into the C ...

. The British silver crown was always a large coin, and from the 19th century it did not circulate well. However, crowns were usually struck in a new monarch's coronation year, from

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

through

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

in 1953, with the exceptions of

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...

and Edward VIII. Great Britain, gothic crown, 1847, Victoria

The King George V "wreath" crowns struck from 1927 through 1936 (excluding 1935 when the more common "rocking horse" crown was minted to commemorate the King's Silver Jubilee) depict a wreath on the reverse of the coin and were struck in very low numbers. Generally struck late in the year and intended to be purchased as Christmas gifts, they were generally kept rather than circulated. The 1927 "wreath" crowns were struck as proofs only (15,030 minted) and the 1934 coin had a mintage of just 932. With their large size, many of the later coins were primarily commemoratives. The 1951 issue was for the

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people: ...

, and was only struck in proof condition. The 1953 crown was issued to celebrate the

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II The coronation of Elizabeth II took place on 2 June 1953 at Westminster Abbey in London. She acceded to the throne at the age of 25 upon the death of her father, George VI, on 6 February 1952, being proclaimed queen by her privy and executive ...

, while the 1960 issue (which carried the same reverse design as the previous crown in 1953) commemorated the British Exhibition in New York. The 1965 issue carried the image of

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

on the reverse. According to the Standard Catalogue of coins, 19,640,000 of this coin were minted, although intended as collectable pieces the large mintage and lack of precious metal content means these coins are effectively worthless today. Production of the Churchill crown began on 11 October 1965, and stopped in the summer of 1966. The crown coin was nicknamed the ''dollar'', but is not to be confused with the British

trade dollar Trade dollars are silver coins minted as trade coins by various countries to facilitate trade with China and the Orient. They all approximated in weight and fineness to the Spanish dollar, which had set the standard for a de facto common currency ...

that circulated in the Orient. In 2014, a new world record price was achieved for a milled silver crown. The coin was unique, issued as a

pattern A pattern is a regularity in the world, in human-made design, or in abstract ideas. As such, the elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner. A geometric pattern is a kind of pattern formed of geometric shapes and typically repeated li ...

by engraver

Thomas Simon Thomas Simon (c. 16231665), English medalist, was born, according to George Vertue, in Yorkshire about 1623. Simon studied engraving under Nicholas Briot, and about 1635 received a post in connection with the Royal Mint. In 1645 he was appoi ...

in 1663 and nicknamed the "Reddite Crown". It was presented to Charles II as the new crown piece, but ultimately rejected in favour of the Roettiers Brothers' design. Auctioneers

Spink & Son Spink & Son (established 1666) are an auction and collectibles company known principally for their sales of coins, banknotes, stock and bond certificates and medals. They also deal in philatelic items, wine and spirits, and other collectible ...

of London sold the coin on 27 March 2014 for £396,000 including commission. All pre-decimal crowns from 1818 on remain legal tender with a face value of 25p.

Decimal crowns

After decimalisation on 15 February 1971, the 25-pence coin was introduced as a replacement for the crown as a commemorative coin. These were legal tender and were made with large mintages. Further issues continued to be minted, initially with a value of twenty-five pence (with no face value shown). From 1990, the face value of new crown coins was raised to five pounds.

Changing values

The legal tender value of the crown remained as five shillings from 1544 to 1965. However, for most of this period there was no denominational designation or "face value" ''mark'' of value displayed on the coin. From 1927 to 1939, the word "CROWN" appears, and from 1951 to 1960 this was changed to "FIVE SHILLINGS". Coins minted since 1818 remain legal tender with a face value of 25 pence. Although all "normal" issues since 1951 have been composed of cupro-nickel, special proof versions have been produced for sale to collectors, and as gift items, in silver, gold, and occasionally

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Pla ...

. The fact that gold £5 crowns are now produced means that there are two different strains of five pound gold coins, namely crowns and what are now termed "quintuple sovereigns" for want of a more concise term. Numismatically, the term "crown-sized" is used generically to describe large silver or

cupro-nickel Cupronickel or copper-nickel (CuNi) is an alloy of copper that contains nickel and strengthening elements, such as iron and manganese. The copper content typically varies from 60 to 90 percent. (Monel is a nickel-copper alloy that contains a minimu ...

coins of about 40 mm in

diameter In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest chord of the circle. Both definitions are also valid fo ...

. Most Commonwealth countries still issue crown-sized coins for sale to collectors.

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

's original fifty-cent pieces, and Australia's previously round but now

dodecagon In geometry, a dodecagon or 12-gon is any twelve-sided polygon. Regular dodecagon A regular dodecagon is a figure with sides of the same length and internal angles of the same size. It has twelve lines of reflective symmetry and rotational sym ...

al fifty-cent piece, although valued at five shillings in predecimal accounting, are all smaller than the standard silver crown pieces issued by those countries (and the UK). They were in fact similarly sized to the predecimal half crown (worth two shillings and sixpence).

Composition

For silver crowns, the grade of silver adhered to the long-standing standard (established in the 12th century by Henry II) – the

Sterling Silver Sterling silver is an alloy of silver containing 92.5% by weight of silver and 7.5% by weight of other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925. '' Fine silver'', which is 99.9% pure silver, i ...

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 seen on coins today. In a debasement process which took effect 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 is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...

, 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, with the move to a composition of

– except for proof issues, which returned to the pre-1920 92.5% silver composition. Since the

Great Recoinage of 1816 The Great Recoinage of 1816 was an attempt by the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to re-stabilise its currency, the pound sterling, after the economic difficulties brought by the French Revolutionary Wars and the N ...

, a crown has, as a general rule, had a diameter of , and weighed 28.276 grams (defined as

troy ounce Troy weight is a system of units of mass that originated in 15th-century England, and is primarily used in the precious metals industry. The troy weight units are the grain, the pennyweight (24 grains), the troy ounce (20 pennyweights), and th ...

Modern mintages

*The specifications for composition refer to the standard circulation versions. Proof versions continue to be minted in

Sterling silver Sterling silver is an alloy of silver containing 92.5% by weight of silver and 7.5% by weight of other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925. '' Fine silver'', which is 99.9% pure silver, i ...

Gallery

File:Edward VI AR Crown 802157.jpg, Crown of Edward VI File:Post-Medieval coin , Gold Crown of Elizabeth I (FindID 474211).jpg, Gold crown of Elizabeth I (c. 1561–1582) File:YORYM-F53CA6 Post-Medieval coin, crown of James I (FindID 187074).jpg, Crown of James I and VI (c. 1619–1625) File:Post Medieval Coin, Crown of Charles I (FindID 640266).jpg, Crown of Charles I File:Crown, Oliver Cromwell, Republic, England, 1649 - Bode-Museum - DSC02764.JPG, Crown of Oliver Cromwell (1649) File:Post-Medieval coin, crown of Charles II (FindID 268418).jpg, Crown of Charles II (1676) File:Post medieval, Crown of William III (FindID 884818).jpg, Crown of William III (1696) File:Queen Anne crown coin.JPG, Crown of Queen Anne File:Crown, George I, Great Britain, 1716 - Bode-Museum - DSC02768.jpg, Crown of George I File:Crown, George II, Great Britain, 1743 - Bode-Museum - DSC02770.jpg, Crown of George II (1743) File:Great Britain, crown, 1818, George III.jpg, Crown of George III (1818) File:Great Britain, crown, 1821, George IV.jpg, Crown of George IV (1821) File:William IV proof crown MET DP100437.jpg, Crown of William IV (1831) File:1896-old-head-victoria-crown.jpg, 1896 'old head' Queen Victoria Crown File:1934 George V 'wreath' Crown (reverse) UNC.JPG, The 1934 George V 'Wreath' Crown File:Coronation Crown 1953 obverse.jpg, The 1953 Coronation Crown, obverse File:Coronation Crown 1953 reverse.jpg, The 1953 Coronation Crown, reverse

Quarter sovereign

In 1853, the Royal Mint had produced two patterns for a gold 5-shilling coin for circulation use, one denominated as five shillings and the other as a

quarter sovereign The quarter sovereign is a British bullion or collectors' coin, whose introduction was announced by the Royal Mint in January 2009. Comprising 1.997 grams of 22 carat or 0.9170 fine gold (the crown gold standard), the 13.5 mm diameter ...

, but this coin never went into production, in part due to concerns about the small size of the coin and likely wear in circulation.OnlineCoinClub
Quarter Sovereign pre-decimal The quarter sovereign was introduced in 2009 as a

bullion coin Bullion is non-ferrous metal that has been refined to a high standard of elemental purity. The term is ordinarily applied to bulk metal used in the production of coins and especially to precious metals such as gold and silver. It comes fro ...

References

External links

History of Five Shilling Coins
on Coins of the UK
Royal Mint Museum's history of Crown Coin

Crown, Coin Type from United Kingdom - Online Coin Club
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crown, United Kingdom Coins of Great Britain Coins of the United Kingdom Quarter-base-unit coins