Jubilee coinage
The Jubilee coinage or Jubilee head coinage are British coins with an
In 1879 Boehm was selected to create a new depiction of Victoria that could be adapted for the coinage – even though the queen marked her 60th birthday that same year, some British coins still showed her as she appeared forty years previously. Boehm gave only intermittent attention to the project, and it took years before it came to fruition. The queen finally gave approval in early 1887, and the new coinage was prepared. Some of the reverse designs for the coinage were changed at the same time, depicting heraldic imagery and engraved by Leonard Charles Wyon.
When the new coins were released in June 1887, they proved a popular souvenir of
Background and preparation
By the late 1870s, most denominations of British coins carried versions of the obverse design featuring Queen Victoria created by William Wyon and first introduced in 1838, the year after she acceded to the throne at the age of 18. The queen, approaching her 60th birthday, no longer resembled her numismatic depiction; and in February 1879, the private secretary to the queen, Sir Henry Ponsonby, informed the Deputy Master of the Royal Mint,[a] Charles Fremantle, that Joseph Edgar Boehm had been engaged to produce a medallic likeness of the queen that could be adapted for coinage purposes. Born in Austria, Boehm had trained as a medallist and had undertaken several sculptural commissions for the royal family.[1]
There was no deadline for the commission, and Boehm throughout often put aside the portrait in favour of more pressing projects. In June 1879 Victoria recorded in her journal that she had "sat to Böhm for a Bas Relief" and in August Ponsonby wrote to Fremantle that the head was done, leading the deputy master to become more involved in the project. Nevertheless, in November, Boehm wrote apologising for his lack of progress. He wrote again on 1 January 1880, stating that he had completed several small models, and mentioning a small crown he had placed on Victoria's head. Although this would be similar in style to the 1877 Empress of India Medal, Fremantle was dubious about the headgear and wrote to Charles Francis Keary at the British Museum asking if there was precedent in numismatics for this. Keary replied that "in the case of Greek coins I need not add the crowns are put on as if meant to be worn and not to tumble off at the slightest movement".[2]
In January 1880 the queen's daughter,
Wyon was not initially involved in this second attempt, and Boehm invited the Viennese sculptor,
Designs
On the obverse of the Jubilee coinage, Victoria wears her small diamond crown, which she had bought so as not to have to wear a heavier one.[5] It was the crown that she preferred to wear at that time, and appears on other contemporary effigies of her.[6] Nevertheless, it quickly became controversial; as the numismatic authors, G. P. Dyer and P. P. Gaspar wrote in A New History of the Royal Mint, "the Boehm portrait, with its tiny crown in danger of tumbling off the back of the queen's head, attracted most criticism".[7] Sir John Craig in his earlier history, The Mint, deemed the effect of the small crown on Victoria's head "ludicrous".[5] Kevin Clancy, in his history of the sovereign coin, stated:
The presence of a small crown, which Victoria was actually fond of wearing, has often been cited as the chief flaw in the composition, but it was not the only weak link. Boehm, an accomplished sculptor, may have intended a faithful likeness but the elements of crown, widow's veil and extended truncation, drew attention to Victoria's pointed profile."[8]
Numismatic scholar Howard Linecar deemed the Jubilee head coinage "conservative in design, except only for that unfortunate crowned bust".[9] Richard Lobel, in Coincraft's Standard Catalogue of English and UK Coins, said that "the small crown placed on the back of the queen's head made her look a bit foolish".[10] André Celtel and Svein H. Gullbekk, in their book on the sovereign and its antecedents, describe the Jubilee head as "perhaps the least flattering of Victoria's coin portraits, presenting a middle-aged rather jowly looking queen wearing a disproportionately small crown on top of her widow's veil".[11] The numismatic writer Stephen Skillern explained that "the Jubilee portrait of the Queen had made no attempt to conceal or soften the results of time on the old Queen's face."[12] Numismatist Lawrence W. Cobb, writing in 1985, took a more nuanced view of the portrait: "Wyon seems to have tried to soften the Queen's look of age, tension and strain [on the medal], but in so doing he lost some of the strength and vigor of the Queen's indomitable spirit. Nonetheless, even with its faults, Wyon's portrait preserves the majesty of the Queen's presence."[13] Leonard Forrer wrote, "Unfortunately, his head of Queen Victoria was so much wanting in artistic merit, that it was severely criticised by all experts, and never gained favour with the public."[14]
As well as bearing the crown, Victoria's head has a widow's veil. Following the death of
For the various reverses, according to Dyer and Gaspar, "Fremantle had revived some of the finest heraldic designs from the past".
The silver
Release and controversy
Initial release
On 12 May 1887, Fremantle officially announced that there would be changes to the gold and silver coinage, including the introduction of a double florin, and an Order in Council to that effect was printed in The London Gazette on 17 May. Later that month, the Annual Report of the Deputy Master of the Mint contained engravings of the new issue;[22] The Ipswich Journal opined on 10 June that "I think that when they are in circulation the public will admit they [the new coins] are a distinct artistic advance on the majority of those at present in use".[30] The same day, Church Times complained, "We cannot join in the applause which has been bestowed upon the George of Pistrucci, which is retained for the sovereign. It is not likely that anybody going out to fight dragons would forget to put on any clothes except a helmet, a cloak, and a pair of shoes."[31]
The official release date of the Jubilee coins was initially set for 21 June, the date on which the queen's Golden Jubilee was to be celebrated.[32] Since this day had been proclaimed a bank holiday, the release date was changed to 20 June, on which date the coins were to be conveyed from the Royal Mint to the Bank of England and there used to fill orders from London banks. Provincial banks would not have the new coins until at least the 22nd.[33] Small quantities were available at the London banks on Saturday, 18 June.[34] The Irish banks in Dublin were able to supply the silver coins to the public on the 20 June, as supplies had been brought over from the Royal Mint on the 18th, though the Freeman's Journal of Dublin reported that the gold coins were not expected to be available there until the 22nd.[35] The Royal Mint's efforts to distribute the coins were hampered by an accident to the die for the crown coin, which was spoilt.[34]
Once the new coins were released, there was a deeply negative reaction by public and press. According to Dyer and Stocker:
When the storm of condemnation erupted, Fremantle seemed genuinely taken aback at 'the sad turn affairs have taken, most unexpected to me'. It was some storm: questions in parliament, outspoken criticism from all sections of the press, derisive cartoons and doggerel in Fun and Punch, and even some unfriendly comment by John Evans in his presidential address to the Numismatic Society. The coinage was seen as the worst of all worlds; poorly executed, undignified on the obverse, and inefficient in not specifying values on the reverse.[36]
As to the coins generally, they are singularly poor in design and feeble in execution. We have many die-sinkers in Birmingham who would have been ashamed to turn them out; and if the Mint can do nothing better, some of our own medalists might well be permitted to try their hands, with the certain result of redeeming the credit of the national coinage [...] unless a change is made sixpences will be electro-gilt and passed off as half-sovereigns by wholesale, for there is no appreciable difference between the two coins, either in weight or appearance [...] the worst thing of all about the coinage is, however, the portrait of the Queen; which is neither valuable as an accurate representation of Her Majesty, nor dignified if it is to be taken as an idealised effigy; while the odd-looking little crown, which seems to be falling off, renders the portrait absolutely ludicrous.[38]
Boehm's fellow artists joined in the chorus. Edward Poynter, opening an art exhibition in South Kensington on 28 July, stated, "The head was modelled by Mr Boehm, and making all allowance for the necessity of pleasing an illustrious patron, that may have led Mr Boehm to accept such structural absurdities as the toy crown and the straight veil, it was difficult to believe that a sculptor of his eminence should have turned out such a thoroughly bad work. For the head is bad all over [...] Some of the new heraldic devices are the poorest things of the kind we have ever had."[39] Lewis Foreman Day criticised the new coins in The Magazine of Art, "British sculptors are justly aggrieved when a production is put forth, presumably as the best we can do, when they themselves know it to be very far from representing the standard of national design, and it aggravates their grievance to think that the favoured artist bears not even an English name".[40]
This criticism entered the House of Commons, where Goschen answered questions about the new coinage on 23 and 28 June. The chancellor told MPs that Royal Mint officials preferred artistic designs from past times for the coinage rather than text stating their values. The public, however, did not confuse the florin and half crown, and they would not confuse the double florin and crown. The Conservative MP, Lewis Henry Isaacs, asked whether the coins could be called in and more suitable designs made. Goschen responded that public demand for the new coins had been so great a premium was being paid for the five-pound piece and that the depiction of the queen was similar to other authorised depictions of her.[41]
Continued circulation
The five-pound and two-pound pieces did not circulate to any great extent, and were kept primarily as souvenirs.
By September, The Graphic was reporting that the new coins were scarce in circulation, and there was talk that many of them had been sent to the colonies. The withdrawn sixpence carried a premium, as did the five-pound piece, and some crowns had been gilded to pass for the five-pound coin.[46] The Sheffield Independent's London correspondent reported on 17 September that the withdrawn sixpences were passing for half a crown each, and that in addition to the quantities of coin sent to the colonies, large amounts had been absorbed by jewellers, who placed them in ornaments, and by visitors to London seeking souvenirs of the Jubilee, especially Americans.[47]
In May 1888 Fremantle reported that, though "the issue of the new coins was received with some adverse criticism", there had been a considerable demand for them – well above what was needed for circulation, leading to the largest number of silver coins issued in several years.
Groats, or fourpence pieces, had not been struck for circulation in Britain since 1855. Disliked because they were the same diameter (though somewhat thicker) than the threepenny bit, they retained some popularity in Scotland, and circulated in British Guiana as the equivalent of a quarter guilder. An issue of groats was made in 1888, the last of its series. Although valid currency in the United Kingdom, they were intended for British Guiana, and bore Boehm's Jubilee head on the obverse, with the William Wyon reverse used since the currency groat's initial issuance in 1836.[51]
Victoria took the opportunity, when inspecting proposed changes to the shilling in June 1888, to lobby Goschen for the inclusion of her title as empress of India (INDIAE IMPERATRIX, abbreviated as IND. IMP. on the coinage). Since the act allowing Victoria to assume the Indian title had forbidden its use in the United Kingdom, Goschen took no action on the request, but Victoria got her way with the following issue of coins, which debuted in 1893,[52] as the cabinet ruled in 1891 that the abbreviation could appear as British coins also circulated in the colonies.[53]
In 1889 both sides of the shilling were slightly altered, with a larger version of Boehm's effigy of Victoria being approved by the queen, and slight changes made to the reverse.[54] Nevertheless, in September 1889, Victoria wrote, "the Queen dislikes the new coinage very much, and wishes the old one could still be used and the new one gradually disused, and then a new one struck".[55] In reply Goschen promised to confer with Royal Mint authorities as to possible options.[50]
Replacement and end of series
The double florin had been controversial, some questioning the need for such a piece or complaining it was too near in size to the crown coin. Anecdotes of losses sustained by publicans and their help, who accepted the double florin under the misapprehension it was a five-shilling piece, led to it being dubbed the "Barmaid's Ruin". The government attempted to increase its circulation by including it in pay packets for its workers, but minting was stopped, as it proved permanently, in August 1890.[15][56]
The death of Boehm in December 1890 set the Royal Mint free to consider replacement designs without being concerned about grieving the queen's favourite sculptor, and in February 1891, Goschen appointed a Committee on the Design of Coins with Sir
A competition was held, and several invited sculptors were asked to submit two versions of a proposed new obverse for the coinage by 31 October. An obverse design by Sir Thomas Brock depicting Victoria wearing a diadem and a veil was chosen for the obverse. The committee decided to retain Pistrucci's George and Dragon design on the coins it appeared upon, as well as expanding it to the half sovereign. Reverse designs, some by Brock and some by Poynter, were determined upon for the other coins of sixpence and above, and the committee recommended the value appear on all coins from the threepence to the half crown.[59] A royal proclamation for the new coins was promulgated on 30 January 1893, and the new coins met a favourable reaction.[60] Some 1893 sovereigns were struck with Boehm's design at the Australian branch mints,[61] and half sovereigns of that type were minted both at London and in Australia.[62] Of the silver coinage, some 1893 sixpences and threepence with Boehm's obverse were struck at London,[63] but otherwise, the Jubilee coinage was at an end.[10][64]
The Jubilee head coins
Denomination | Obverse | Reverse | Reverse designer and first year used on denomination | Years struck with Jubilee obverse and most recent later usage of reverse on this denomination |
---|---|---|---|---|
Five-pound piece | Benedetto Pistrucci[65] (1887)[66] | 1887 (London and Sydney mints).[66] Reverse most recently used in 2024.[67] | ||
Double sovereign | Benedetto Pistrucci[68] (1823)[69] | 1887 (London and Sydney mints).[70] Reverse most recently used in 2024.[67]
| ||
Sovereign | Benedetto Pistrucci[67] (1817, major modification in 1821)[71] | 1887–1892 (London Mint) 1887–1893 (Melbourne Mint) 1887–1893 (Sydney Mint)[61] Reverse most recently used in 2024.[67] | ||
Half sovereign | Leonard Charles Wyon[17] (1887 modification of 1838 design by Jean Baptiste Merlen)[62] | 1887, 1890–1893 (London Mint) 1887, 1893 (Melbourne Mint) 1887, 1889, 1891 (Sydney Mint)[72] | ||
Crown | Benedetto Pistrucci[73] (1818, major modification in 1821)[74] | 1887–1892.[75] Reverse most recently used in 1951.[76] | ||
Double florin | Leonard Charles Wyon[77] (1887)[77] | 1887–1890[77] | ||
Half crown | Leonard Charles Wyon[17] (1887)[78] | 1887–1892[78] | ||
Florin | Leonard Charles Wyon[79] (1887)[80] | 1887–1892[81] | ||
Shilling | Leonard Charles Wyon[17] (1887)[82] | 1887–1892[82] | ||
Sixpence (withdrawn type) | Leonard Charles Wyon[17] (1887)[83] | 1887[83] | ||
Sixpence | Leonard Charles Wyon[17] (1887 modification of 1831 design by Jean Baptiste Merlen)[84] | 1887–1893.[83] Reverse last used in 1910.[85] | ||
Groat (fourpence) | William Wyon[86] (1836)[87] | 1888[86] | ||
Threepence | Jean Baptiste Merlen (1822).[88] Crown redesigned 1887 by Leonard Charles Wyon[17][88] | 1887–1893.[88] Reverse last used in 1926.[89] | ||
Maundy coinage
|
Jean Baptiste Merlen (1822).[90] Crown redesigned 1888 by Leonard Charles Wyon.[26] | 1888–1892.[91] Reverse remains in use as of 2023.[91][92] |
Notes
References
- ^ Dyer & Stocker, p. 274.
- ^ Dyer & Stocker, p. 275.
- ^ Dyer & Stocker, pp. 275–277.
- ^ Dyer & Stocker, pp. 277–280.
- ^ a b Craig, p. 342.
- ^ Dyer & Stocker, p. 281.
- ^ a b Dyer & Gaspar, p. 536.
- ^ Clancy, p. 75.
- ^ a b Linecar, p. 110.
- ^ a b Lobel, p. 65.
- ^ Celtel & Gullbekk, p. 108.
- ^ a b Skillern, p. 31.
- ^ a b Cobb, p. 257.
- ^ Forrer, p. 258.
- ^ a b "Item NU 1124 Coin – Double-florin, Queen Victoria, Great Britain, 1889". Museums Victoria. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
- ^ a b c Dyer & Gaspar, p. 535.
- ^ a b c d e f g Dyer & Stocker, p. 282.
- ^ Linecar, p. 97.
- ^ a b c d Lant, p. 134.
- ^ Lobel, p. 454.
- ^ Lobel, pp. 467–469.
- ^ a b Lant, pp. 134–135.
- ^ Lobel, pp. 546–547.
- ^ Lobel, pp. 555–556, 564–565.
- ^ Seaby, p. 160.
- ^ a b Robinson, p. 49.
- ^ Linecar, p. 103.
- ^ Peck, pp. 493–495.
- ^ Lobel, pp. 416–417.
- ^ "Notable Events and Prominent Personages". Ipswich Journal. 10 June 1887. p. 5.
- ^ Lant, p. 135.
- ^ "The New Coinage". Sheffield Independent. 28 May 1887. p. 8.
- Dundee Courier. 10 June 1887. p. 3.
- ^ a b c "London Correspondence". Western Mail. Cardiff, Wales. 21 June 1887. p. 2.
- ^ a b "The Jubilee Celebrations in Dublin". Freeman's Journal. Dublin. 21 June 1887. p. 6.
- ^ Dyer & Stocker, p. 280.
- ^ Lant, p. 136.
- Birmingham Daily Post. 24 June 1887. p. 4.
- ^ Lant, p. 139.
- ^ Day, p. 420.
- ^ Lant, pp. 136–137.
- ^ Seaby, p. 157.
- ^ Celtel & Gullbekk, p. 109.
- ^ Lobel, p. 547.
- ^ Lant, p. 138.
- ^ "Topics of the Week". The Graphic. 17 September 1887. p. 298.
- ^ "Notes From London". Sheffield Independent. 17 September 1887. p. 5.
- ^ "The Jubilee Coinage". The Standard. 30 May 1888. p. 5.
- ^ a b Lant, p. 140.
- ^ a b Stocker, p. 67.
- ^ Lobel, pp. 47, 559–560.
- ^ Lant, pp. 139–141.
- ^ Stocker, p. 76.
- ^ Lobel, pp. 534–536.
- ^ Dyer & Stocker, p. 283.
- ^ Dyer, pp. 114–117.
- ^ Stocker, pp. 67–68.
- ^ Stocker, p. 68.
- ^ Stocker, pp. 68–77.
- ^ Stocker, p. 80.
- ^ a b Lobel, pp. 456–457.
- ^ a b Lobel, pp. 468–469.
- ^ Lobel, pp. 549, 565.
- ^ Lant, p. 141.
- ^ Lobel, pp. 427–428.
- ^ a b Lobel, p. 428.
- ^ a b c d "The sovereign 2024 five-coin gold proof set". Royal Mint. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
- ^ "The Double Sovereign 2021 Gold Bullion Coin". Royal Mint. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
- ^ Lobel, p. 439.
- ^ Lobel, p. 440.
- ^ Lobel, p. 453.
- ^ Lobel, pp. 469–470.
- ^ Lobel, p. 488.
- ^ Lobel, pp. 486–488.
- ^ Lobel, p. 490.
- ^ Lobel, p. 492.
- ^ a b c Lobel, p. 495.
- ^ a b Lobel, pp. 510–511.
- ^ Lobel, p. 517.
- ^ Lobel, pp. 518–519.
- ^ Lobel, p. 519.
- ^ a b Lobel, pp. 535–536.
- ^ a b c Lobel, pp. 548–549.
- ^ Lobel, pp. 547–549.
- ^ Lobel, pp. 548–550.
- ^ a b Lobel, pp. 559–560.
- ^ Lobel, p. 559.
- ^ a b c Lobel, pp. 564–566.
- ^ Lobel, p. 567.
- ^ Lobel, pp. 555–556, 564.
- ^ a b Lobel, p. 556.
- ^ "The Royal Mint Unveils His Majesty King Charles III's Official Maundy Money Coins". Royal Mint. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
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