Description

On January 1, the Royal Mint launched a new coin that marks the 300th anniversary of a very important pinnacle in the economic development of the United Kingdom. In 1717, Great Britain adopted and utilized the gold standard following the recommendation of Sir Isaac Newton (1643–1727), the Royal Mint’s mintmaster—a position he held for almost 30 years. Sir Isaac was also instrumental in developing the means to institute weights and measures, which would help the coins of the realm become some of the world’s most reliable and desired forms of payment. His improvements to assaying techniques and refinement of weights and measures resulted in an exacting standard that had never been seen before, and that would be replicated in other parts of the world. The gold standard had, in fact, been given royal assent as early as 1704 by Queen Anne, who had signed a proclamation basing its measurement and standard on the gold Spanish doubloon. The work of Sir Isaac established the ratio between gold and silver—a ratio that eventually led silver coinage to disappear from circulation and be replaced with a comprehensive gold series of coinage.

The gold standard endured as the de facto mode of commerce for more than 100 years with the issue of new gold Guineas of an amended weight worth exactly 21 Shillings, which became the standard. With the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars toward the end of 1815, an acute shortage of both gold and silver ushered in the use of paper banknotes issued by the Bank of England and backed by gold deposits. Standardized silver coins had not been minted or issued by the Treasury for more than 65 years in favor of the circulating gold coins; as a consequence, privately produced tokens made of copper and sometimes silver were beginning to gain acceptance in local trade. Ultimately, the end of the Napoleonic Wars precipitated the start of the Great Recoinage Act of 1816, as the gold standard was deemed no longer economically feasible. This move sought to reintroduce a new, standardized series of silver circulation coins and to introduce a gold Pound coin equal to 20 Shillings. The reintroduction of standardized silver coins in England after such a long absence from common use was a welcome economic change to a public who hadn’t seen a crown or half-crown coin since 1751.