Background: By 1947, towards the end of George VI’s reign, silver British coinage was no more. Silver was just too valuable a commodity to waste on coinage and, with the break up of the British Empire now inevitable, there as no need to ‘pretend’ British sterling was the world’s foremost currency. Many other currencies were…
Background: By the end of George V’s reign the threepence had become unpopular in England because of its small size but it remained popular in Scotland. It was consequently decided to introduce a more substantial ‘thru’penny bit’ which would have a more convenient weight/value ratio than the silver coinage. The silver threepence continued to be…
Background By the end of George V’s reign the threepence had become unpopular in England because of its small size. Although it was still popular in Scotland, the government of the day decided to introduce a more substantial thru’penny bit which would have a more convenient weight/value ratio than the silver coinage. The silver threepence…
The gunmoney of James II: August 1689 (timeline)
The introduction of the new ‘gunmoney’ sixpence in June was a qualified success for deposed King James II and he quickly moved to cash in even more when he ordered the issue of shillings and halfcrowns for July. The coin presses in Capel Street were in production 24 hours a day, with mint workers employed…
This was never going to be enough and the answer to James’s financial predicament came from a Protestant – William Bromfield, an English Quaker and one time surgeon who invented the world’s first ‘fiat’ currency based upon a promise to pay at a later date
Introduction Gun money was an emergency issue of coins made by the forces of James II during the Williamite War fought in Ireland between the years 1689 and 1691. It was not quite the same as the emergency issues of the Great Rebellion of 1641 where besieged cities and towns melted silver plate and issued…
The Old Currency Exchange is a specialist dealer and valuer of Irish & GB coins, tokens and banknotes 