"Peter Masson" wrote in message
...

I think I've only once seen a crown used as payment in a normal
transaction - around 1955 a boy in the class paid his week's dinner money
(5
shillings) using one.

I didn't think that crown coins were intended for general circulation, and
were used mainly as commemorative pieces because they were too big. But they
were legal, so there technically would have been no problem using it.

I know that there was a pre-decimilisation 10-shilling banknote, but was
there ever a five-shilling banknote?

Incidentally, I'd read a while ago that some of the five-pound coins, which
are also crown-sized, had come into general circulation.

"Charles Ellson" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:11:27 +0100, "Peter Masson"
wrote:

That might be down to interpretation. The last intentionally-regular
issues for general circulation seem to have been after the 1887 Royal
Jubilee. Since then have been mostly commemorative issues but even
before Victoria's time they don't seem to have been established as an
"everyday" issue. I suspect their size possibly clashed with some kind
of practical threshold above which coins were inconvenient to carry or
handle.

Was the size of coins really an issue, though?

How were people in the United States handling the 20-dollar coins, or even
the Liberty silver dollars?

The Eisenhower dollars of the 1970s were also quite big, and I believe that
they were in general circulation.

"R.C. Payne" wrote in message
...

But given that 1/- is exactly one twentieth of a pound, and 2/- is exactly
a tenth, it makes sense that the replacement coin for the same value, ie
5p and 10p be essentially the same coin, and by extention, that the old
coins remain in circulation. I certainly enjoyed getting change with a
king's rather than queen's head on it. I never happened upon any older
than about 1950, but still...


I've seen shilling coins dated 1952, bearing George VI's portrait, however.

"Peter Masson" wrote in message
...

"R.C. Payne" wrote

Until the 1960s it was not that unusual to get 19th century coins - with
Queen Victoria's head - usually pennies but very occasionally silver
coins.
Until the new small 5p came in shillings dating back to 1816 were legal
tender, though I don't think I ever saw George III, George IV, or William
III examples. There were also occasional press stories of silver groats
(4d - not Maundy examples) surfacing, being mistaken for silver 3d or
sixpences.

I think that this still happens today, though clearly not to the same
degree.

I got a shilling back in my change on one occasion, while on the other I got
a 2d coin from the Free State of Ireland.

A few years ago, when I visited Canada, I found a 1-cent coin with George
VI.

I also occasionally find coins from Crown Dependencies, such as Gibraltar or
the Isle of Man. Friends of mine have even found coins in their change from
as far as St. Helena and the Falkland Islands.

wrote

I know that there was a pre-decimilisation 10-shilling banknote, but was
there ever a five-shilling banknote?

In its very early days the Bank of England issued handwritten banknotes for
any amount, so they might have issued a five shilling note then.
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/bankn...ut/history.htm

During WW1 the Treasury issued ten shilling and one pound currency notes.
They also printed five shilling, half crown, and one shilling notes, but
AFAIK these were never issued for circulation.
http://xray.sai.msu.ru/~mystery/images/money/UK/UK.html

Peter

"Jim Brittin" [wake up to reply] wrote in
message m...

In the early sixties on a number 9 bus going to the Albert Hall a
passenger offered a coin to the conductor to pay her fare. The
conductor didn't like the look of it but I managed to catch sight of it
and exchanged it for another shilling. It was a rather clapped-out
George IV one from 1820. This was the oldest legal tender coin I've
ever seen in circulation.

Something similar happened to me on the Midland Metro. A woman was trying to
pay with a 2-pound coin from the 1980s, but the condutor rejected it. I also
offered current coins in exchange for that one.

"Charles Ellson" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:33:01 +0100, "R.C. Payne"
wrote:

MIG wrote:
By the time decimalisation arrived much of the "silver" which really
was silver (50% to 1946, sterling silver to 1919) had disappeared into
back-street smelters due to the metal value exceeding the face value
of the coins. The same happened later to some extent with pennies and
halfpennies and later with decimal bronze coins (which are now plated
steel).

I did once find a 1938 2s in my change, but I think that the reason
why you hardly ever saw any dated before 1947 was that that was the
first year when there wasn't any silver content.

Same thing happened in the United States -- it is next to impossible to find
any coins from before 1964, because they had all previously contained
silver.

"Peter Masson" wrote in message
...

During WW1 the Treasury issued ten shilling and one pound currency notes.
They also printed five shilling, half crown, and one shilling notes, but
AFAIK these were never issued for circulation.
http://xray.sai.msu.ru/~mystery/images/money/UK/UK.html


The Channel Islands still have one-pound notes in regular circulation,
incidentally. I refer to both Guernsey and Jersey.

On Sat, 14 Jun 2008, wrote:

"Peter Masson" wrote in message
...

"R.C. Payne" wrote

Until the 1960s it was not that unusual to get 19th century coins -
with Queen Victoria's head - usually pennies but very occasionally
silver coins. Until the new small 5p came in shillings dating back to
1816 were legal tender, though I don't think I ever saw George III,
George IV, or William III examples. There were also occasional press
stories of silver groats (4d - not Maundy examples) surfacing, being
mistaken for silver 3d or sixpences.

I think that this still happens today, though clearly not to the same
degree.

I got a shilling back in my change on one occasion, while on the other I got
a 2d coin from the Free State of Ireland.

A few years ago, when I visited Canada, I found a 1-cent coin with George
VI.

I also occasionally find coins from Crown Dependencies, such as
Gibraltar or the Isle of Man. Friends of mine have even found coins in
their change from as far as St. Helena and the Falkland Islands.

I have a bag in which i've been accumulating interesting coins for 15-20
years (ever since i had coins, basically!). It's mostly the special
designs of UK pounds, two pounds and 50ps, plus various coins from the
channel islands, Man and Gibraltar. The most interesting things are a St
Helena & Ascension pound, which is a fairly dull design with some birds on
it, a 1985 five shilling from Kenya, which looks enough like a 50p that i
didn't notice it in my handful of change, although it's a little heavier,
and the scowling visage of Daniel Arap Moi is hard to confuse with the
scowling visage of our own dear queen, and a 1996 Swazi one lilangeni,
similar in shape and material to a pound, which i - ObRailway - got in
change from a ticket machine at Paddington!

tom

--
Demolish serious culture!

On Sat, 14 Jun 2008 12:41:19 +0100, wrote in
misc.transport.urban-transit:


"Charles Ellson" wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:11:27 +0100, "Peter Masson"
wrote:

That might be down to interpretation. The last intentionally-regular
issues for general circulation seem to have been after the 1887 Royal
Jubilee. Since then have been mostly commemorative issues but even
before Victoria's time they don't seem to have been established as an
"everyday" issue. I suspect their size possibly clashed with some kind
of practical threshold above which coins were inconvenient to carry or
handle.

Was the size of coins really an issue, though?

How were people in the United States handling the 20-dollar coins, or even
the Liberty silver dollars?

Wasn't the $20 gold piece smaller than the Liberty dollar? As I recall
gold is more dense than silver.

The Eisenhower dollars of the 1970s were also quite big, and I believe that
they were in general circulation.

They were the same size at the Liberty IIRC.