Defacing Coins

Yes, destroying crown coinage for fun or profit (without formal permission) is still just as illegal as it was in the middle ages, though the penalties aren't quite as severe as being hung, drawn and quartered.

I'm not absolutely sure, but I believe Section 10 of the Coinage Act 1971 is the most relevant law you're after:

quote:

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No person shall, except under the authority of a licence granted by the Treasury, melt down or break up any metal coin which is for the time being current in the United Kingdom or which, having been current there, has at any time after 16th May 1969 ceased to be so.

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Translation: Don't destroy current (decimal) or obsolete (predecimal) coins.

Now I suppose it could depend on how severe a "defacing" we're talking about. A pencil moustache is reversible, so it's probably OK. A little counterstamp might be acceptable (though I believe in the 1800's, Britain had problems with this, and passed laws to prevent it - I don't know if those laws still stand).

But grinding off the Queen's portrait, or ramming a coin through one of those souvenir-making "penny elongators" like the Americans are fond of doing to their cents, would count as "destruction" in my opinion. But in the end it's the lawyer's opinions that matter more, methinks.

G'day, SAP wrote:
"... though the penalties aren't quite as severe as being hung, drawn and quartered."
Counterfeiting currency was called "coining", and for a long time, it was a species of treason, and the penalties were indeed severe. Upto 1798, the penalty for women was to be burned at the stake: the last such case occurring as late as 18th March 1789.
A little research has revealed that Susan Grant (1809), and Mary Bissaker (1819) were hanged for coining.
Upto 1814, the correct sequence was: drawn, hanged (but not until dead), disembowelled, beheaded, & quartered.
In 1814, the Statute was amended. Thereafter, the hanging was until death; disembowelling was abolished; and the beheading was only carried out upon an already-deceased prisoner.
The last beheadings were in 1820: and they were spared the quartering.
Forging banknotes was a different matter, only a felony, but plenty were hanged for it upto circa 1832.
I collect counterfeit coins upto 1820, and I confess that when I handle them, I sometimes tremble at the thought of the significance they once had.
Peter in Oz

I have a contemporary counterfeit Scottish hardhead from the reign of Mary Queen of Scots, in my collecting opin it is more interesting than having an authentic coin because it is rather scarcer - no doubt do to the fact that the penalties for "coining" were quite severe as Peter notes above. Quite frequently during the reign of Mary and then James VI coins such as bawbees were called in and validated with counterstamps. This act in of in it self eliminated many of the counterfeits from circulation.