Crown Etiquette Anyone?

Thanks for the info PaddyB.
Regarding 2 designs in 1 year, the same thing happened with our 2019 coinage. I suspect the number of LCT coins that year was a new record for any country.

Mr T was right.

All Colonial coins up to George V had a crowned portrait of the ruler except those Edward VII rupees of India?

In 1937 2 things changed, Edward VIII was a moderniser and allowed upcoming coins for the "White" Dominions to have his portrait uncrowned. He also wanted to face the same way as his dad, because he felt the side of his face looked moe attractive (Vanity thy failing is man).

Since Edward never made the throne and the only coins that bear his name were mostly holey pennies and cents from tropical colonies like Fiji, New Guinea and West Africa - we move to George VI.

I have noticed that the coins of NZ, Australia, Canada and South Africa in addition to those of the UK had this portrait.



Mainly as these places had a mostly European populationa nd thus a measure of independence and self government, yet knowing who was really in charge.

However colonies with a smaller white population like Rhodesia, Kenya etc had the crowned portrait along with Islands and dependencies and any colony with a large native or non white population (Like Chinese Malays and Indian Trinidadians) had the crowned portrait, just to let them know they were colonies and ruled by Governors sent by the crown, not elected Prime Ministers and Premiers like the Dominions.





Fijian coins showing a crowned ruler and a crown on cyphered and written inscriptions on low value base metal coins.

The third group was tiny dependencies and Bailiwicks like Jersey and Guernsey, depsite their proximity to the UK and their exclusively white populations, they still had crowned colonial effigies as well.

The Machin, Maklouf and Clark of the Queen also show her crowned (Tiaras) on all countries coins, except republics in the commonwealth of course as I think the tiaras are the preference of Her Majesty.

But could be wrong.

Basically KGVI and early QE2 remained crowned on these colonial coins to remind the natives, who was in charge.

That photo is Jubilee era, if not slightly earlier (1870s to early 1880s), Victoria either had naturally dark hair into her 60s or she was fond of the hair dye.

That comically small crown graces her head on the Jubilee coins of 1887 - 1893


The crown is one and the same in your photo DG!

A larger Tiara type coronet crown graces her on old head coins - The veiled head.


The crown appears larger covering her head and would be termed a coronet, as it does not have the big poopy cushion thing with all the jewels and stuff

Thinking about it, it seems most coins of Victoria before 1887, she is bare headed, even on colonial coins of Canada and India, but then with Hong Kong and Mauritius with afew others she adopts the crown.


Hong Kong 1866 10 cent coin with crowned Queen Vic.

The early East India company coins to 1857 showed an uncrowned Queen, but after 1857 she was to appear crowned except as we know the Raj coinage was only started in 1862 and these coins featured a crowned Queen.

I have also researched and found that crowned effigies were a mainstay of Medieval (Generic king portraits up to Henry 7) and Tudor/early Stuart coins. But starting with milled coins of King Charles II (1662 onwards) monarchs appeared either uncrowned or merely wearing wreaths, it is because most denominations (Not bronze/copper) often featured crowns, shields, lions and other imperial/regal devices in the designs on the Obverses.


Where is your crown your majesty?


Oh there it is!

These uncrowned effigies lasted through to Young Head Queen Victoria coins and both Edward (Colonial coins of Oz, Straits settlement, Jamaica, Canada etc) and George V who loved the pomp and majesty (He did a famous durbar in India in 1911 complete with Tiger Killing and Maharajahs paying him homage and Gin gang gooley and all the rest) and this crowned thing was really a Imperial fad of the late 19th and early 20th century.

Also the earlier wreath wearing was evocative of caesars and thus stating the crowned individual was someone who was above kingship, but had passed into imperial control. Afterall Emperors trump kings, the coins were ambitious as Hanoverian rulers had some claim to Holy Roman Empire ambitions with German holdings, but Stuart rulers ready had no claim to imperial parts of Europe, but considered having Scotland, Wales and whatever few American colonies as an empire.

Also Victoria was only an Empress offically from 1877 onwards. Many will dispute Britain had an empire from 1601 onwards when they seized their first Indian port. The first official colonial territory was Bermuda in 1609 (Jamestown was a village in 1607, but pretty much not seized fully until 1615 or so, as it was always under attack and nearly dead and we don't really count Roanoake).

Wearing a crown does not mean your are a king or queen. In the English peerage system, everyone down to baronet has a coronet/tiara or crown of some descriptions. And many German princelings down to counts, margraves, dukes, landgraves etc wore crowns. Now you can have drag queens and beauty queens wearing crowns! Heck you can get a paper one from BurgerKing (HappyJacks for you DG).

The closest crown I will own is one from Fierce Drag Jewels

Just my one worn shillingsworth.

In 1937, there were five Dominions in the British Empire, besides Britain itself: Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa. The sixth Dominion originally mentioned in the Balfour Declaration and Statute of Westminster, Newfoundland, went bankrupt and voluntarily devolved back to "colony" status in 1934.

I believe it is largely a coincidence that for George VI, the Dominions, by and large, featured crown-less coinages, and the Colonies featured crowned coinages. Coinage design was not a centrally planned and organized Empire-wide scheme; each Dominion was free to stipulate the designs for their own coinage, including the monarch's portrait, any way they wished. Ireland, for example, never depicted the monarch at all on their coins. Crowned and uncrowned versions of the portrait were chosen by the king and then submitted to the Dominion governments for their own selection process. The Colonies, likewise, had representatives who gave input into the coinage design; yes, they would have been white colonial government representatives rather than natives, but apart from that, I don't think any necessarily racist or patronizing subliminal messages were intended.


Under the Holy Roman/German Empire, an elaborate heraldic symbology arose, whereby the shape and format of the crown depicted on the coinage denoted the rank of the title-holder. Wikipedia article. We can still see this symbolism on the flag and coat of arms of Liechtenstein, both of which depict a Germanic Prince's crown.


My own theory on the lack of the depiction of a crown on the heads of post-Commonwealth royal coinages is that during the Commonwealth, the royal regalia, including the original royal Crown of St Edward - a relic dating from Anglo-Saxon times - was melted down and sold for scrap. The crown that Charles II and his successors were crowned with (and still exists today) was a replica, that had lost its symbolic power to bestow royal authority on people.

Correct; the Coronation Spoon, used to measure out the anointing oil before it is smeared on the monarch-to-be's head, is the oldest relic in the set of royal regalia. It actually dates from the late 1100s and is the only piece of the Crown Jewels to survive the Commonwealth purge. It survived because, as a spoon with utilitarian function (it was apparently originally made for dispensing wine, not holy oil, and wasn't actually used in coronations until James I in 1601), minimal decoration and no obvious Royal symbolism or connection stamped on it, it was sold intact to a former royal aide, who kept it and gave it intact back to the monarchy upon the Restoration.

As the only surviving pre-Commonwealth relic, it has taken on deeper meaning and symbolism. You can even see it featured on the 1977 Silver Jubilee crown, where it takes pride of place on the reverse beneath the weird bird (I know, it's supposed to be an eagle atop the Ampulla, but I don't think the artist who made it in 1661 ever actually saw a live eagle. It looks worse than the eagles on early American coinage). I tried to find video footage of the spoon actually in use during Elizabeth II's coronation, but the actual anointing ceremony is a secret, private moment in an otherwise extravagantly public coronation ceremony, performed underneath a cloth canopy away from the cameras.