Crown (British coin)

The crown was a denomination of sterling coinage worth a quarter of one pound (five shillings, or 60 old pence; equivalent to 25 new pence). The crown was first issued during the reign of Edward VI, as part of the coinage of the Kingdom of England.

Always a heavy, silver-coloured coin weighing around one ounce, during the 19th and 20th centuries the crown declined from being a real means of exchange to being a coin rarely spent, and minted for commemorative purposes only. Unlike in some territories of the British Empire (such as Jamaica), in the UK the crown was never replaced as circulating currency by a five-shilling banknote.

"Decimal" crowns (25p pieces), which have the same face value as the crown, were minted a few times after decimalisation of the British currency in 1971. However, five pound coins, issued since 1990, sometimes referred to as a 'crown', have a face value of five pounds.

History

The coin's origins lie in the English silver crown, one of many silver coins that appeared in various countries from the 16th century onwards (most famously the Spanish piece of eight), all of similar size and weight (approx 38mm diameter, 25g fine silver) and thus interchangeable in international trade. The Kingdom of England also minted gold Crowns until early in the reign of Charles II.

The dies for all gold and silver coins of Queen Anne and King George I were engraved by John Croker, a migrant originally from Dresden in the Duchy of Saxony.

The British silver crown was always a large coin, and from the 19th century it did not circulate well. However, crowns were usually struck in a new monarch's coronation year, from George IV to Elizabeth II in 1953, with the exceptions of George V and Edward VIII.

The King George V "wreath" crowns struck from 1927 until 1936 (excluding 1935 when the more common "rocking horse" crown was minted to commemorate the King's Silver Jubilee) depict a wreath on the reverse of the coin and were struck in very low numbers.