Posted 07/05/2012 07:49 am
That's not how it works in Britain, unfortunately. The British government, unlike its American counterpart, is very efficient at withdrawing (for profit) any odd or obsolete precious metal coinage from the banking system.
The 25p denomination for decimal crowns is a direct conversion of the old predecimal crown, which was worth 5 shillings (1 shilling became 5p on conversion) or one-quarter of a pound.
Of course, there's far more than 25p worth of cupronickel in a crown-sized coin these days - which is why the modern-equivalent of the "crown" has a 5 pound denomination instead. Any 25p coin deposited in the bank today would be booked as 25p, but the coin would be withdrawn and returned to the Mint for recycling.
Likewise sovereigns, and any precious-metal NCLT coin such as silver Britannias. Anyone unwise enough to bank a sovereign in Britain today will indeed be given £1 in their account, but the coin will be returned to the mint and melted, for a nice tidy profit of several hundred pounds to the government.
If you're lucky and have a good relationship with your bank staff, they might allow you to exchange, for face value, any such "odd" coinage that gets deposited there, before it gets sent back to the Mint. If experience in Australia is anything to judge by, whether they allow this or not all depends on the procedures and protocols that particular bank has in place.
The 25p denomination for decimal crowns is a direct conversion of the old predecimal crown, which was worth 5 shillings (1 shilling became 5p on conversion) or one-quarter of a pound.
Of course, there's far more than 25p worth of cupronickel in a crown-sized coin these days - which is why the modern-equivalent of the "crown" has a 5 pound denomination instead. Any 25p coin deposited in the bank today would be booked as 25p, but the coin would be withdrawn and returned to the Mint for recycling.
Likewise sovereigns, and any precious-metal NCLT coin such as silver Britannias. Anyone unwise enough to bank a sovereign in Britain today will indeed be given £1 in their account, but the coin will be returned to the mint and melted, for a nice tidy profit of several hundred pounds to the government.
If you're lucky and have a good relationship with your bank staff, they might allow you to exchange, for face value, any such "odd" coinage that gets deposited there, before it gets sent back to the Mint. If experience in Australia is anything to judge by, whether they allow this or not all depends on the procedures and protocols that particular bank has in place.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
