Next
club meeting Monday 8th May
2017.
·
Subject - Antique
Silver and Hallmarks by Chris Moore
Monday 5th June 2017.
Monday 5th July 2017.
Meetings are held
at the
NOTICES
March Meeting
At the April meeting 31
members heard a talk given by Kevin Clancy, Director of the Royal Mint Museum
entitled ‘A history of the Sovereign – the chief coin of the World’. The talk
was accompanied with many pictures of sovereigns, from the very first to those
of the present day.
In the middle ages the status
of a leader was very important. Consequently the rulers in Continental Europe
began issuing large gold coins to demonstrate their lofty position. In the mid
14th century, not to be outdone, Edward III issued his own status
coin, namely the Noble which was the first sovereign in all but name.
Beginning with pictures of various Nobles, which
spanned many reigns up to Edward IV, we were then shown examples of the Angel
and the truly magnificent large Sovereigns of the Tudor monarchs. These were
certainly out to impress and to demonstrate the power of England. After the
Tudors the Sovereign as such disappeared, becoming the Ryal,
Laurel and finally the Unite of Charles the first. Throughout this period the
speaker demonstrated that these coins were not used as circulating currency.
They were totally impractical for ordinary people as they had a value many
times the typical wages of the time. The fact that they are rarely found in
hoards nor mentioned in literature & plays is proof that they were
statement pieces rather than circulating currency.
With the restoration of
Charles II the prominent gold coin was the Guinea of 21 shillings. By this time
with inflation, a strong economy and increased wages the guinea was being used
as a circulating currency piece. However, by the late eighteenth century the
European wars caused bullion prices to rise significantly, resulting in an
acute shortage of circulating gold coins, due to hoarding & speculation.
This situation was only resolved with the defeat of Napoleon and the issue in
1817 of the sovereign as we know it today.
It was designed by B Pistrucci
and featured the famous St George & the Dragon design still used today. The
obverse shows a middle aged King in the style of a Roman emperor despite the
King actually being decrepit from old age and madness. Apart from the early
shield reverse sovereigns of George IV, William IV and Victoria the later ones
reverted to the St George & Dragon reverse, which continued up to the First
World War. After the war while sovereigns were issued in some Empire countries
none were issued in England, apart from a few patterns & commemoratives.
That is until in more recent times where they are once more issued with the St
George reverse as collector and investment pieces.
Throughout the talk Kevin
gave many anecdotes related to the sovereign. He gave figures of the numbers
minted, how in the early Tudor years some were debased, typical wages of the
time in comparison to the value of the sovereign and Ricardo’s ingot proposed
to replace the sovereign. He also mentioned the failed return to the gold
standard after the First World War and that the depiction of St George is far
older than Pistrucci’s rendition.
Overall a very interesting
talk and we express our thanks to the speaker.
Summer Social
The Summer social this year will be a trip to
The Freemasons’ Hall museum in London on August 1st. If intending to come please sign the form that will be
available at next few meetings. We are limited to about 15 so first come first
served.
Future
Events.
Past Events
· In 2007 we had another visit from Kevin Clancy who spoke on A Currency without a Coinage.
·
In 1997 Tim
Hayward spoke on "Aspects of German coinage"
·
In 1987 Phil Wainwright gave a talk on "Celtic
Coinage"
·
In 1977 Harold Good spoke on "Seventeenth Century
Token Coinage of Southampton"
Club Secretary.