Crown (British coin)
| Great Britain, United Kingdom | |
| Value | 1⁄4 pound sterling |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 38 mm |
| Edge | Milled |
| Composition | (1816-1919) 92.5% Ag (1920-1946) 50% Ag (1947-1970) Cupronickel |
| Years of minting | 1707–1965 |
| Obverse | |
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| Design | Profile of the monarch (Victoria "jubilee head" design shown) |
| Designer | Joseph Boehm |
| Design date | 1887 |
| Reverse | |
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| Design | Various (St George design shown) |
| Designer | Benedetto Pistrucci |
| Design date | 1817 |
The British crown, the successor to the English crown and the Scottish dollar, came into being with the Union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland in 1707. As with the English coin, its value was five shillings.
Always a heavy silver coin weighing around one ounce, 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. In that format it has continued to be minted, even following decimalisation of the British currency in 1971. However, as the result of inflation the value of the coin was revised upwards in 1990 to five pounds.
The coin's origins lay in the English silver crown, one of many silver coins that appeared in various countries from the 16th century onwards, the most famous example perhaps being the famous Spanish pieces of eight, all of which were of a similar size and weight (approx 38mm diameter and containing approx 25 grams of fine silver) and thus interchangeable in international trade. The kingdom of England also minted gold Crowns in the 16th and 17th centuries.
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 in the Duchy of Saxony.
The British 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, true of each monarch since King George IV up until the present monarch in 1953, with the single exception of King George V.
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