Great Recoinage of 1816
The Great Recoinage of 1816 was an attempt by the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to re-stabilise its currency, the pound sterling, after the economic difficulties brought about by the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.[1]
Background
The
Privately owned banks in Great Britain and Ireland had long been free to issue their own
Local tokens were produced by companies and banks all over the country. Despite an increase in trade, the national debt had increased by 100% by the start of the 19th century. A series of bad harvests pushed up food prices and this culminated in riots in 1801–02.
Corn prices
The government needed to find a way to stabilise the currency, and the Great Recoinage was the first step in this process. The main aims were the reintroduction of a silver coinage and a change in the gold coinage from the
This massive recoinage programme by the
Specifications
The weight of the new gold sovereigns was calculated on the basis that the value of one
The recoinage of silver in Great Britain after a long drought produced a burst of coins: the mint struck nearly 40 million shillings between 1816 and 1820, 17 million half-crowns and 1.3 million silver crowns.[9]
The value of one troy pound (weighing 5,760 grains (373 g) of standard
The silver coins initially produced were shillings weighing 87.2727 grains (5.65518 g), half-crowns of 218.1818 gr (14.13794 g) and crowns of 436.3636 gr (28.27589 g). Over the many reigns until
See also
Explanatory notes
References
- ^ A New history of the Royal Mint by Christopher Edgar Challis
- Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the MeasuringWorth "consistent series" supplied in Thomas, Ryland; Williamson, Samuel H. (2018). "What Was the U.K. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
- ^ "A brief history of banknotes". Bank of England. Archived from the original on 11 October 2007. Retrieved 8 October 2007.
- ISBN 0-415-12742-4
- ^ The British Almanac. Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (Great Britain) 1856
- ^ The Coinage of Britain. Ken Elks
- ^ A New History of the Royal Mint. Christopher Edgar Challis
- ^ a b UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
- ^ Report from the Select Committee on the Royal Mint: together with the minutes of evidence, appendix and index, Volume 2 (Great Britain. Committee on Royal Mint, 1849), p. 172.