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Does anyone know what happened to the coinage when the monarchy changed at certain times. Was there a recall of old coinage (Such as when decimilisation was introduced). When were cartwheel coins obsolete? That kind of thing. When Victoria came to the throne were there coins of previous monarchs still legal tender and if so how long dod they stay in circulation?

What years did the silver content of coins drop and were they recalled prior to this?

A bit of a vague question I know but I just wondered how long some early coins would have remained in circulation. Is the poor state of some coins we find due to wear in the ground or wear from centuries of hand to hand dealings?

Here's a few for starters:

In Anglo-Saxon times, the coinage was recalled when there was a new ruler, and sometimes several times during a reign. Only the new coinage was then legal tender. I'm not sure what happened in later medieval times.


Later, hammered coinage remained legal tender until 1696. I'm not sure how many reigns of coins were still circulating then, maybe someone else knows?

British "silver" coinage remained effectively unchanged from 1816 to beyond decimalisation, so the sixpences, shillings, halfcrowns and crowns issued after the "Great Recoinage" of 1816 remained legal tender. The first decimal five pence coins were the same size as the old shillings, so the George III shillings were still legal tender until the reduction of the size of the five pence in 1990.

In 1920, the silver coins were reduced from the .925 standard (92.5% silver) to 50% silver.

In 1947, silver content disappeared and the coins became cupro-nickel.

With earlier copper coins, I'm not clear - does anyone else know?

Gold sovereigns from 1817 are still legal tender today I believe.

Farthings  ceased to be legal tender in 1960, pre-decimal halfpennies in 1969 and pennies in 1971. The old sixpence (from 1816) continued as legal tender until 1980.

The coins with actual silver in gradually disappeared from circulation. In the sixties, though, when I was a lad, you would still sometimes see the silver George V and VI shillings, florins and halfcrowns. I can't remember seeing Victorian or earlier silver, but Victoria pennies were very common. They were also very worn, often being more or less blank discs. Although the ground is the cause of corrosion on copper coins, I think they were also often extremely worn when they were lost.

thanks for that peter   very interesting   you allways  have good info to share with us ,,,  well done and keep up the great work   ;D ;D many thanks

hammered gold coins remained leagal tender longer than the silver, not being withdrawn until the reign of George II, dont know the exact date though.

crowns struck since 1818 are sill leagal tender for 25p ! and all maundy money from 1816 is current at the face values stated on them !

a few years ago when i lived in lichfield, a lady in a supermarket tried to spend a sovereign, and the cashier refused it (she was trying to use it at its face value, i dont know who was sillier, the spender or the cashier)

i read somewhere of a re-coinage in medieval times where all old coins had to be take to exchange mint. as a lot of people lived in rural areas and could'nt afford to have a week off work due to the vast amount of miles they would have to travel to these mints someone was nominated to collect all coins in every village they passed on their route to the mints for which they were paid a commission. to cut a long story short these agents made hundreds of pounds and it cost the country a fortune. so no change there then.  mike 

Cheers Peter and all. See, that's why I love this forum. You think of a question and throw it out as a thread and soon someone like Peter gives a very interesting and detailed answer.

Also I've found out that my silver Victoria coins are actually .925. For some reason I had it in my head they were 50% which Peter now informs me came into being in 1920.

Thanks again for the information.