State of UK gold coinage in 1868

[SidS]

I was browsing this morning for some info on another area of British coinage and accidentally stumbled upon this article. It's a bit of a gem and I'd thought I'd share it with any of you who care about the history and use behind sovereigns and half sovereigns. I personally love these academic articles where a contemporary has gone to some trouble to inspect and analyse the currency they found.

Part 2 onwards is fascinating - the quantity by date of sovereigns and halves which were to be found in change from 1817-1867 issues - some are scarcely found. There's a surprising amount of 1841s found - predictably very few of 1819.

1864 make up over a fifth of sovereigns in circulation in 1868!

Also of interest into part 3 and 4 of the article are the percentages found circulating below legal tender weight.

Pg 440 is particularly fascinating. It gives some idea to survival rates in 1868. Bear in mind that many more coins will have been melted since. Perhaps worth comparing with Marsh - to see how they marry up.

Open source so free to download.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2338797

 

Edited April 9, 2023 by SidS

[Wileyfox]

Thanks for sharing, I also found the Part I particularly interesting.

For anyone who hasn't read the article, in Part I the author is advocating reducing the weight of the sovereign so that it is equivalent to 25 Francs of the Latin Monetary Union (France et al) . He thought that this would've facilitatated international trade and prevented coins from having to be reminted as they went from the British Empire to the LMU and vice versa.

1 franc = 0.290322581 grams of gold so 25 francs = 7.25806275 grams of gold.

If the proposal would have been adopted and 22ct gold kept, then newly minted sovs would've weighed 7.9179g instead of 7.9881g. Four sovs would then have the same gold content as five Roosters, Vreneli etc.

[SidS]

1 minute ago, Wileyfox said:

Thanks for sharing, I also found the Part I particularly interesting.

For anyone who hasn't read the article, in Part I the author is advocating reducing the weight of the sovereign so that it is equivalent to 25 Francs of the Latin Monetary Union (France et al) . He thought that this would've facilitatated international trade and prevented coins from having to be reminted as they went from the British Empire to the LMU and vice versa.

1 franc = 0.290322581 grams of gold so 25 francs = 7.25806275 grams of gold.

If the proposal would have been adopted and 22ct gold kept, then newly minted sovs would've weighed 7.9179g instead of 7.9881g. Four sovs would then have the same gold content as five Roosters, Vreneli etc.

I did read that as well. It would have been the LMU+

The euro before the euro but unlike the modern currency, an actual solid money system.