Dearborn's British, English, And Other Related Coins

Regarding decimalization:

Britain tried for over 100 years to go decimal. In 1849, they took the first step, introducing the florin, at two shillings or 1/10th of a pound. The goal at the time was to use the florin as a springboard to gradually replace all the other minor coinages with decimal-fractions-of-pounds equivalents. However, they made a fatal error: the original design of the florin included a flaw - it lacked any mention of God, in the traditional Latin legends "Dei gratia" and "fidei defensor". The Godless Florin of 1849 was a P.R. disaster and public flop; the design had to be replaced with the hyper-traditional "gothic florin" in 1851, and the powers-that-be lost appetite for forcing further rapid coinage reform.

In 1887, Britain attempted the next step, in introducing the Double Florin - 4 shillings, or 2/10ths of a pound. This coin too was a flop, mainly for the same reason that the 20 cent coin in the US was a flop: it was too close in size to an already-popular already-circulating coin. It was nicknamed the "barmaid's ruin" because it was constantly being confused for a crown (5 shillings), with anyone getting confused losing a whole shilling. The double florin is one of the shortest series of any British coins, lasting just four years (1887-1890). Britain took no further steps toward decimalization until the 1960s.

Finally, the date of Decimal Day: Monday 15th February. This was not a random date. It was chosen because the economic wisdom of the day said that mid-February was the best time of year to implement a coinage reform: everyone would be back at work after the Christmas break, but the busy Easter trading period had not yet begun. Obviously, Valentine's Day was not of major economic significance in Britain back in the 1960s, or this would not have been true. Putting it on a Monday would mean being able to have the entire weekend to ship the new coins around the country while most businesses were closed. This same logic had previously seen Australia's transition to decimal currency occur smoothly on Monday 14th February 1966.

Yes it went very smooth....except I still can't get that advertising jingle (to the tune of Click Go The Shears) out of my head....

Very nice purchase, Dearborn!

I wouldn't be surprised at all to find out that Edward II penny came out of an English garden bed. I have heard of many ladies getting their gardens ready for spring planting and uncovering coins like these.

A really neat bit of history and a details coin I'd be happy to have in my own collection.

And in today - I got a 2022 King Charles III 50 pence coin. 8.0g, 27.3mm


I'm guessing that I did not get the coin I saw in the image on ebay... I'll be getting a better looking one.

Very nice!

Indeed. And it goes both ways. My failure to use cash prevents me from getting change to search.

That was an easy fix.