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 Replies: 8 / Views: 1,335 |
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Valued Member
United States
241 Posts |
Does anyone know the reason the Great Britain Half Crown was changed from silver to copper-nickel in 1947? I've been trying to do some research on the small collection of Great Britain coins I have and can't find the answer to this question anywhere online.
It seems a confusing move, when you consider, for example, that the US and Canada did not change the content of its half dollar size coins until 1964 and later.
Thanks in advance for any help you can give me on this.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
711 Posts |
WW2 was hard on the Brits financially. I presume financial difficulty from their war costs was the primary reason.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
1351 Posts |
Yep silver had to beat the vile Nazis until the US joined the Allies.
The Nazis got their butts kicked.Soviets were good too.
The Italians tanks had 5 reverse gears and the French surrender monkeys didn't help.
The battle of Britain had brilliant Polish pilots together with ANZACS and quality Canadians.
UK also had quality Empire boys.
If you look at Wiki our Russian comrades took a battering.
This must never happen again.
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Valued Member
 United States
241 Posts |
Thank you. That makes a lot of sense. I guess then they never got around to changing it back to it's original composition (like the US did with its pennies and nickels).
It's interesting, now that I think of it, how that war seems to have resulted in different kinds of minting changes in different countries. The Americans, for example, took their nickel coin and made it silver; while the Brits took a silver coin and made it nickel.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
711 Posts |
Vietnam and LBJ's Great Society are the main reason we had to remove silver from our coinage and shortly after had to close the gold window.
Currency debasement to me is the most fascinating thing about coin collecting.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
1351 Posts |
I love the way we accepted bank notes.
But I'm happy with credit cards/Ebay etc
I'm still after a decent white £5 post war.
I have amassed most £1 and 10/- notes including replacement notes.
My wife doesn't understand my passion...but hey who needs 50 pairs of shoes?
I did get her some nice silk underwear but I guess it was for me looking at the small print.
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Valued Member
United States
241 Posts |
Yes, I only started collecting seven years ago, and was nine years old when silver pretty much left the numismatic scene, but I grieve even now the loss of silver from the currency. There is something in silver coins beyond just their melt value that has never been replaced; and the same goes for copper coins too, I believe.
..............
I just read your post peter 1234 and laughed out loud.
Edited by rayof315
08/14/2015 9:54 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
I like the idea of precious metals in circulating money.
That is the reason why I don't collect World coins after about 1965.
My interest in base metal coinage (copper nickel, bronze and copper), terminates after about 1965, based on the withdrawal of silver from circulating money.
I also collect gold coins when I am lucky enough to be able to pay for them.
Even with gold coins, their type has to have had a circulating history before before they qualify for my interest to be included in my collection.
The 'golden age' for gold coins is between about 1800 to 1914, when they were much more commonly available for circulation.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
992 Posts |
The British silver content was .925 fine until 1920, when WWI required it drop to .500 fine. WWII finally bankrupted the British and the content was dropped to base metals in 1947.
The US ended up the big winner in the war, economically speaking. Canada, Australia, and other Dominions didn't need to debase their coinage, the largest trading partner was the USA and they got by fairly well.
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Replies: 8 / Views: 1,335 |
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Posted 08/14/2015 4:25 pm
