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The Great Recoinage of 1816 was an attempt by the government of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into one sovereign state, established by the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801. It continued in this form until ...
to re-stabilise its currency, the
pound sterling Sterling (symbol: £; currency code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound is the main unit of sterling, and the word '' pound'' is also used to refer to the British currency general ...
, after the economic difficulties brought about by the
French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Habsb ...
and the
Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
.


Background

The
French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Habsb ...
(1792–1802) and the
Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
(1803–1815) led to financial instability in Britain. This was due to the cost of direct military and economic warfare against France as well as Britain's financing of a series of coalitions opposed to the French Revolutionary and
Napoleonic Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led a series of mi ...
regimes. In exchange for large cash subsidies from Britain, nations such as Austria, Prussia and Russia, with armies larger than Britain's, fought against France. The period's economic conflicts, such as Napoleon's
Continental System The Continental System or Continental Blockade () was a large-scale embargo by French emperor Napoleon I against the British Empire from 21 November 1806 until 11 April 1814, during the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon issued the Berlin Decree on 21 No ...
and Britain's retaliatory measures against it, disrupted trade and the availability of markets in Europe for the products of Britain's growing mercantile and colonial empires. Finally, insufficient supplies of silver and copper led to a shortage of coins. Privately owned banks in Great Britain and Ireland had long been free to issue their own
banknote A banknote or bank notealso called a bill (North American English) or simply a noteis a type of paper money that is made and distributed ("issued") by a bank of issue, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commerc ...
s, but as gold shortages affected the
supply of money In macroeconomics, money supply (or money stock) refers to the total volume of money held by the public at a particular point in time. There are several ways to define "money", but standard measures usually include currency in circulation (i ...
, the note-issuing powers of the banks were gradually limited by various Acts of Parliament, until the
Bank Charter Act 1844 The Bank Charter Act 1844 ( 7 & 8 Vict. c. 32), sometimes referred to as the Peel Banking Act of 1844, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, passed under the government of Robert Peel, which restricted the powers of British bank ...
limited the issuance by English and Welsh banks of non-gold-backed
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 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...
notes to up to £14 million. The English private banknote eventually disappeared, leaving the Bank of England with a monopoly of note issue in England and Wales. Local tokens were produced by companies and banks all over the country. Despite an increase in trade, the national debt had increased by 100% by the start of the 19th century. A series of bad harvests pushed up
food prices Food prices refer to the average price level for food across countries, regions and on a global scale. Food prices affect producers and consumers of food. Price levels depend on the food production process, including food marketing and food di ...
and this culminated in riots in 1801–02. Corn prices halved at the end of the wars, when trade with Europe resumed. The Corn Laws of 1815 were intended to protect the price of domestic grain, but this kept grain prices high and depressed the domestic market for
manufactured goods Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...
, because people had to use so much of their money to buy food. Likewise, European countries that relied on exporting corn to Britain in order to buy British manufactured goods were no longer able to do so. The government needed to find a way to stabilise the currency, and the Great Recoinage was the first step in this process. The main aims were the reintroduction of a silver coinage and a change in the gold coinage from the
guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...
valued at 21
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 ...
to the slightly lighter
sovereign ''Sovereign'' is a title that can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to ...
worth 20 shillings. The value of the shilling remained unchanged at twelve
pence A penny is a coin (: pennies) or a unit of currency (: pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. At present, it is t ...
. This massive recoinage programme by the
Royal Mint The Royal Mint is the United Kingdom's official maker of British coins. It is currently located in Llantrisant, Wales, where it moved in 1968. Operating under the legal name The Royal Mint Limited, it is a limited company that is wholly ow ...
created standard gold sovereigns and circulating crowns and half-crowns containing the now famous image of St. George and the Dragon by the Italian engraver Benedetto Pistrucci, and eventually copper farthings in 1821. Pistrucci's initial portrait of
George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...
has become known to collectors as the "bull-head George".


Specifications

The weight of the new gold sovereigns was calculated on the basis that the value of one
troy pound Troy weight is a system of Physical unit, units of mass that originated in the Kingdom of England in the 15th century and is primarily used in the precious metals industry. The troy weight units are the Grain (unit), grain, the pennyweight (24 ...
of standard (22 carat) gold was £46 14s 6d. Sovereigns therefore weighed . This standard persists to the present day, more than two centuries later. To put a
gold standard A gold standard is a backed currency, monetary system in which the standard economics, economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the ...
into effect, and avoid the pitfalls of
bimetallism Bimetallism, also known as the bimetallic standard, is a monetary standard in which the value of the monetary unit is defined as equivalent to certain quantities of two metals, typically gold and silver, creating a fixed Exchange rate, rate of ...
, silver coins were declared
legal tender Legal tender is a form of money that Standard of deferred payment, courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment in court for any monetary debt. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything ...
only for sums of money up to 40 shillings. The recoinage of silver in Great Britain after a long drought produced a burst of coins: the mint struck nearly 40 million shillings between 1816 and 1820, 17 million half-crowns and 1.3 million silver crowns.
Report from the Select Committee on the Royal Mint: together with the minutes of evidence, appendix and index, Volume 2
' (Great Britain. Committee on Royal Mint, 1849), p. 172.
The value of one troy pound (weighing of standard
sterling silver Sterling silver is an alloy composed mass fraction (chemistry), by weight of 92.5% silver and 7.5% other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver silver standards, standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925. ''Fineness, Fine silver'' ...
(0.925
fineness 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 ...
)) was fixed by coining it into 66 shillings (or its equivalent in other denominations). This established the weight of all silver coins (and their
cupro-nickel Cupronickel or copper–nickel (CuNi) is an alloy of copper with nickel, usually along with small quantities of other metals added for strength, such as iron and manganese. The copper content typically varies from 60 to 90 percent. ( Monel is a ...
successors), and their decimal new pence replacements, from 1816 until the 1990s, when new smaller coins were introduced. The silver coins initially produced were shillings weighing , half-crowns of and crowns of . Over the many reigns until
decimalisation Decimalisation or decimalization (see American and British English spelling differences, spelling differences) is the conversion of a system of currency or of weights and measures to units related by Power of 10, powers of 10. Most countries have ...
other denominations came and went, such as the threepence, sixpence,
florin The Florentine florin was a gold coin (in Italian ''Fiorino d'oro'') struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time. It had 54 grains () of nominally pure or 'fine' gold with a pu ...
, and double florin, always weighing exactly one troy pound per 66 shillings (irrespective of fineness, which was reduced to 50% in 1920, and to 0% in 1947). This made 5 sterling silver shillings (which is 1 crown), about the weight of of sterling silver.


See also

* Coinage Act 1816


References

Informational notes Citations {{Reflist 1816 in England 1816 in economic history 1816 in the United Kingdom Economic history of the United Kingdom History of British coinage History of pound sterling