Which coin was first introduced as a gold coin by Edward III in 1334 but then re-introduced as a silver coin in 1849, supposedly as a tentative first step towards decimalisation?
"Florin (British coin) The British florin, or two shilling coin, was issued from 1849 until 1967, with a final issue for collectors dated 1970. Valued at one tenth of a pound (24 old pence), it was the last coin circulating immediately prior to decimalisation to be demonetised, in 1993, having for a quarter of a century circulated alongside the ten pence piece, identical in specifications and value. The florin was introduced as part of an experiment in decimalisation that went no further at that time. The original florins, dated 1849, attracted controversy for omitting a reference to God from Queen"
"– the noble, half noble, and the quarter noble – were introduced, followed later by the silver groat or fourpence which became very popular and eventually superseded the penny in importance, together with the half groat which was also popular. Together with the production of half pennies and farthings, England had at last an adequate supply of varying denominations which benefited both internal trade and trade with other countries in Europe where English coins were readily acceptable. Edward III's first coinage, between 1327 and 1335, is very similar to the Edward I and II pennies, with the inscription around a"
"or quarters, usually along the cross which formed a prominent part of the reverse of the coin. It was long considered that the first silver farthings were produced in the reign of King Edward I (1272–1307). However, in recent years five examples have been discovered dating from the reign of King Henry III (1216–1272). All are in the short-cross style of that period, produced between 1216 and 1247, and are similar in design to the pennies, but only a quarter the size. Due to the lack of known examples and documentary evidence, these coins are thought to be trials rather"
"silver, named after its association with the currency. Sterling silver is harder than the 0.999 (99.9%) fine silver that was traditionally used, and so sterling silver coins did not wear down as rapidly as fine silver coins. The English currency was almost exclusively silver until 1344, when the gold noble was successfully introduced into circulation. However, silver remained the legal basis for sterling until 1816. During the time of Henry III, the pound sterling equalled the tower (weight) pound. In the 28th year of Edward I (around 1300), the tale (money) pound, or pound sterling, first began to differ from"
"this value until 1464 when the value was increased. Throughout the history of this denomination there are many varieties of inscriptions, mintmarks, and to some extent, design. The coin was introduced during the second coinage (1344–46) of King Edward III, when the coin weighed 138.5 grains (9.0 grams); during the king's third coinage (1346–51) the weight of the coin was reduced to 128.5 grains (8.3 grams), while in his fourth coinage (1351–77) it became even lighter, at 120 grains (7.8 grams). The diameter of the noble was 33–35 mm, half noble 25–26 mm and quarter noble 19–21 mm. Edward III"
"valued as if gold was worth only 10 times as much as silver, an unrealistic ratio which Edward III of England had unsuccessfully tried to use. It failed again, Louis IX’s silver coins were a great success but his gold was not accepted at this rate and his successor discontinued gold coinage. Philip IV reintroduced gold coinage to France in 1296 and began a sequence of extravagantly designed but rapidly changing types. These coins were generally named for their obverse design and the écu a la chaise which Philip VI introduced in 1337 showed a shield with the coat of"
"""crown"" and ""half crown"" worth five shillings (""5/-""), and two shillings and six pence (""2/6"", ""two and six"") respectively. Henry VIII's reign (1509–1547) saw a high level of debasement which continued into the reign of Edward VI (1547–1553). This debasement was halted in 1552, and a new silver coinage was introduced, including coins for 1d, 2d, 3d, 4d and 6d, 1/-, 2/6 and 5/-. In the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603), silver d and d coins were added, but these denominations did not last. Gold coins included the half-crown, crown, angel, half-sovereign and sovereign. Elizabeth's reign also saw the introduction"
"for this reason that it obtained its name from an Italian coin known as the ""testone"", or ""headpiece"", which had been introduced in Milan in 1474. Between 1544 and 1551 the coinage was debased repeatedly by the governments of Henry VIII and Edward VI in an attempt to generate more money to fund foreign wars. This debasement meant that coins produced in 1551 had one-fifth of the silver content of those minted in 1544, and consequently the value of new testoons fell from 12d to 6d. The reason the testoon decreased in value is that unlike today, the value of"
"English Three Farthing coin The silver three-farthing (d) coin was introduced in Queen Elizabeth I's third and fourth coinages (1561-1582), as part of a plan to produce large quantities of coins of varying denominations and high metal content. The obverse shows a left-facing bust of the queen, with a rose behind her and the legend – Elizabeth, by the grace of God a rose without a thorn – while the reverse shows the royal arms with the date above the arms and a mint mark at the beginning of the legend reading – City of London, the Tower Mint. The"
"$1.00. After the Coinage Act of 1834, silver (which was previously overvalued with respect to gold) became significantly undervalued and was exported to European markets where it was traded at a higher price. This led to its near disappearance from par-circulation after 1834. Despite the attempts by Jackson, Taney and members of Congress to supplant paper currency in favor of “hard-money,” there were over a thousand banks issuing their own notes in small denominations (between $0.01 and $2.50). Coinage Act of 1834 The Coinage Act of 1834 was passed by the United States Congress on June 28, 1834. It raised"
"his death in 1357. To finance the continuing wars of the 1340s, Edward III of England granted to a small group of merchants a monopoly on the export of wool. In return, they agreed to collect the ""poundage"", or wool tax, on his behalf. This included a tariff on the import of woolen cloth, which put out of business the Italian and foreign merchants that had dominated the wool export trade. The monopoly merchants went bankrupt in the following decade. Edward also introduced three new gold coins in 1344: the florin, leopard, and helm. However, the gold content of these"
"time of Henry II, but the weight and value of the silver penny steadily declined from 1300 onwards. In 1257, Henry III minted a gold penny which had the nominal value of 1 shilling eightpence (i.e., 20 d.). At first, the coin proved unpopular because it was overvalued for its weight; by 1265 it was so undervalued—the bullion value of its gold being worth 2 shillings (i.e., 24 d.) by then—that the coins still in circulation were almost entirely melted down for the value of their gold. Only eight gold pennies are known to survive. It was not until the"
"coin in circulation from the 8th century until the 13th century. Although some fractions of the penny were struck (see farthing and halfpenny), it was more common to find pennies cut into halves and quarters to provide smaller change. Very few gold coins were struck, with the gold penny (worth 20 silver pence) a rare example. However, in 1279, the ""groat"", worth 4d, was introduced, with the half groat following in 1344. 1344 also saw the establishment of a gold coinage with the introduction (after the failed gold florin) of the ""noble"" worth six shillings and eight pence (6/8) (i.e."
"the only denomination of coin minted in England for 500 years, until the attempted gold coinage issue of King Henry III in 1257 and a few halfpennies and farthings in 1222, the introduction of the groat by King Edward I in 1279, under whom the halfpenny and farthing were also reintroduced, and the later issues of King Edward III. At the time of the 1702 London Mint Assay by Sir Isaac Newton, the silver content of British coinage was defined to be one troy ounce of sterling silver for 62 pence. Therefore, the value of the monetary pound sterling was"
"Three halfpence (English coin) The English three halfpence, a silver coin worth d, was introduced in Elizabeth I of England's third and fourth coinages (1561–1582) as part of a plan to produce large quantities of coins of varying denominations and high silver content. The obverse shows a left-facing bust of the queen, with a rose behind her, with the legend – Elizabeth by the grace of God a rose without a thorn – while the reverse shows the royal arms with the date above the arms and a mintmark at the beginning of the legend – City of London, the"
"The pound sterling was adjusted in weight several more times thereafter. In the reign of Henry IV (1399–1413), the penny was reduced in weight to of silver, with a further reduction to in 1464. During the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, the silver coinage was drastically debased, although the pound was redefined to the troy pound of in 1526. In 1544, a silver coinage was issued containing just one-third silver and two-thirds copper—equating to .333 silver, or 33.3% pure. The result was a coin copper in appearance but relatively pale in colour. In 1552, a new silver coinage"
"pure as was available). However, in 1158, King Henry II introduced ""Tealby penny"". English currency was almost exclusively silver until 1344, when the gold noble was put into circulation. However, silver remained the legal basis for sterling until 1816. In 1663, a new gold coinage was introduced based on the 22 carat fine guinea. Fixed in weight at to the troy pound from 1670, this coin's value varied considerably until 1717, when it was fixed at 21 shillings (21/-, 1.05 pounds). However, this valuation overvalued gold relative to silver compared to other European countries. British merchants sent silver abroad in"
"1840). ¼ gulden and gulden coins were minted in 1826 and 1827 in numbers over a million, with the former also minted in 1840. Coinage was finally fully decimalised in 1854, with copper , 1 and 2 cents and silver , and ¼ gulden (although the 1821–1840 coinage continued to circulate). The new coinage bore Arabic script alongside Dutch language, which earlier Dutch-minted had not done. The gulden was only issued in 1854 and 1855, because it was too small to be convenient, but all other denominations continued to be issued until 1945, with copper changing to bronze from 1914,"
"(some four hundred years after it had ceased to mean anything). There were two obverses used, with different portraits of the king (the new one being introduced in 1804), with the legend . The design of the reverse was a crown, with the legend (to 1800) or (from 1801). Third guinea (British coin) A seven shilling piece was introduced in Great Britain by a proclamation of 29 November 1797. It has been called a third guinea, a guinea being worth 21 shillings. The gold coin was minted only in the reign of George III. When it was introduced in 1797,"
"Half Florin The Florin (also known as a Leopard) was an attempt by English king Edward III to produce a gold coinage suitable for use in Europe as well as in England. The florin was largely based on contemporary European gold coins, with a value of three shillings. The gold used to strike the coins was overvalued, resulting in the coins being unacceptable to the public, and the coins were withdrawn after only a few months in circulation in August 1344 to be melted down to produce the more popular Noble. Few specimens have survived of what is often regarded"
"it to his exchange, and receive there the value at which it had been made current, a halfpenny on being deducted, probably for the coinage"". Compared to its bullion weight, the coin was undervalued. By 1265, the gold in the coin was worth twenty-four pence rather than twenty, and it is believed that most of the coins were melted down for profit by individuals. Gold coins would not be minted again in England until the reign of King Edward III about 70 years later. As all the coins were recalled and melted down, the gold penny completely disappeared from view,"
"Quarter Florin The Half Florin or Helm was an attempt by English King Edward III to produce a gold coinage suitable for use in Europe as well as in England (see also Double Florin or Double Leopard and Florin or Leopard). The half florin, based on contemporary European gold coins had a value of one shilling and sixpence. However, the gold used to strike the coins was overvalued, resulting in the coins being unacceptable to the public, and the coins were withdrawn after only a few months in circulation, in August 1344, to be melted down to produce the more"
"and this was marked by the replacement of the 3-guilder coin by a -guilder piece. The gold coinage was completely suspended in 1853, five years after the suspension of the gold standard. By 1874, production of silver coins greater in value than 10 cents had ceased, to be only fully resumed in the 1890s. Gold 10 guilder coins were struck again from 1875. In 1877, bronze -cent coins were introduced. In 1907, silver 5 cent coins were replaced by round, cupro-nickel pieces. These were later replaced in 1913 by square shaped 5 cent pieces. In 1912, gold 5 guilder coins"
"1816, a new silver coinage was introduced in denominations of 6d, 1/-, 2/6 (half-crown) and 5/- (crown). The crown was only issued intermittently until 1900. It was followed by a new gold coinage in 1817 consisting of 10/- and £1 coins, known as the half sovereign and sovereign. The silver 4d coin was reintroduced in 1836, followed by the 3d in 1838, with the 4d coin issued only for colonial use after 1855. In 1848, the 2/- ""florin"" was introduced, followed by the short-lived double florin in 1887. In 1860, copper was replaced by bronze in the farthing (quarter penny,"
"(1547–53), when it formed part of a set of new denominations. Although it was an easy denomination to work with in the context of the old sterling coinage system, being a quarter of a shilling, initially it was not popular with the public who preferred the groat (four pence). Hence the coin was not minted in the following two reigns. Edward VI threepences were struck at the London and York mints. The obverse shows a front-facing bust of the king, with a rose to the left and the value numeral III to the right, surrounded by the legend . The"
"that reported in 1818, and again in Parliament by Sir John Wrottesley in 1824. Another Royal Commission was set up 1838 by Chancellor of the Exchequer Thomas Spring Rice and it reported in 1841 that decimal coinage was required first. A third commission in 1853 advocated decimal coinage in the form £1 : 10 florins : 100 cents: 1000 mils. The first florins (one tenth of a pound sterling) were struck in 1849 as silver coins weighing and having a diameter of . An early supporter of the ""Decimal Association"" was the mathematician Augustus de Morgan whose articles supporting the"
"in length and width, stamped with indications of their value. Gold coins began to be minted again in Europe in the 13th century. Frederick II is credited with having reintroduced gold coins during the Crusades. During the 14th century Europe changed from use of silver in currency to minting of gold. Vienna made this change in 1328. Metal-based coins had the advantage of carrying their value within the coins themselves – on the other hand, they induced manipulations, such as the clipping of coins to remove some of the precious metal. A greater problem was the simultaneous co-existence of gold,"
"gold ""tremisses"" (sometimes referred to by numismatists as ""thrymsas"") were struck to circulate alongside these Frankish issues: all of the forty gold tremisses found in the burial at ‘mound one’ at Sutton Hoo (deposited ""c."" 630), for instance, were Frankish. The earliest coins struck in England can be roughly dated to around the year 600: they include one gold ""tremissis"" struck by a moneyer named Eusebius working at Canterbury (""Dorovernia""), and the Liudhard medalet, a gold medallion (though in fabric very like a coin) found in Canterbury and bearing the name of a bishop Liudhard, almost certainly the same bishop"
"about 22 g of silver in 1258. This had fallen to 11 g by 1271, to 3 g by 1286, and to 1.91 g in 1303. The gold maravedí had disappeared as a money of account by 1300. The ""maravedí de plata"" (silver maravedí) gradually came to be used as money of account for larger sums, for the value of gold coins, and for the mint price of silver, and eventually it supplanted the sueldo as the main accounting unit. Alfonso XI (1312–1350) did not call any of his coins a maravedí, and henceforth the term was used only as"
"value for several years. The Act of June 28, 1834 called for a reduction in the gold used. The weight of the coin was reduced to 8.36 grams, the diameter reduced to 22.5 mm, and the composition changed to .8992 gold and .1008 silver and copper. A new obverse, the ""Classic Head"", was created by William Kneass for the altered coin. The reverse still depicted the modified eagle introduced in 1813, but ""E PLURIBUS UNUM"" was removed to distinguish further the new composition. In 1837, the gold content of this type was increased to .900 in accordance with the Act"
"1754 by an Imperial crown. The silver of Charles III bore the rim inscription CAROLUS•III•D•G•HISPAN•ETIND•REX+ obverse, and +VTRA QUE VNUM+(mintmark)+(year)+(mintmark)+ reverse. The 8-real piece was commonly called the ""Carolus dollar"" in English. The inscription on the gold coins of Charles III was changed to IN UTROQ FELIX AUSPICE DEO (and remained thus until the American colonies gained independence). After 1757, China restricted European trade to Canton (see Thirteen Factories for a description of this trading system). The British East India Company dominated this trade and paid for its purchases with Spanish Carolus dollars, which were accepted in China for more"
"the possible advent of a decimal currency at the time (see florin), when the 3d at 1/80th of a pound would not have fitted within a decimal system). Currency silver threepences from 1838 to 1926 were of identical design and cannot usually be distinguished except in the best conditions when the higher striking standard of the maundy coins stand out; this resulted in the curious legal anomaly that when the currency was decimalised in 1971 ""all"" silver threepences from 1870 onwards were revalued at three new pence, not just the maundy coins. Threepences were produced with both the ""young head"""
"(1838–1887) and ""Jubilee head"" (1887–1893), inscribed , while those produced with the ""old head"" (1893–1901) are inscribed . The currency threepence was issued for each of the nine years of the reign of King Edward VII from 1902. The reverse design remained the same, while the obverse showed the right-facing effigy of the king, with the inscription . The reign of King George V (1910–1936) features several changes to the threepence denomination. As with all British silver coins, the silver content was reduced from sterling (0.925) silver to 50% silver, 40% copper, 10% nickel in 1920, 50% silver, 50% copper"