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The value of some coins fluctuated, particularly in the reigns of James I and Charles I. The value of a guinea fluctuated between 20 and 30 shillings before being fixed at 21 shillings in December 1717. These are denominations of British, or earlier English, coins – Scottish coins had different values.
Examples of the standard reverse designs minted until 2008. Designed by Christopher Ironside (£2 coin is not shown).. The standard circulating coinage of the United Kingdom, British Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories is denominated in pennies and pounds sterling (symbol "£", commercial GBP), and ranges in value from one penny sterling to two pounds.
Extended the Bank Notes Act 1833 to make Bank of England notes under £5 in value legal tender; the act also applied to Scotland, making English 10/– and £1 legal tender for the first time. Bank of England withdrew low-denomination notes in 1969 and 1988, removing legal tender from Scotland.
The pound is the main unit of sterling, [4] [c] and the word pound is also used to refer to the British currency generally, [7] often qualified in international contexts as the British pound or the pound sterling. [4] Sterling is the world's oldest currency in continuous use since its inception. [8]
The sovereign is a British gold coin with a nominal value of one pound sterling (£1) and contains 0.2354 troy ounces (113.0 gr; 7.32 g) of pure gold.Struck since 1817, it was originally a circulating coin that was accepted in Britain and elsewhere in the world; it is now a bullion coin and is sometimes mounted in jewellery.
Unlike in some territories of the British Empire (such as Jamaica), in the UK the crown was never replaced as circulating currency by a five-shilling banknote. "Decimal" crowns were minted a few times after decimalisation of the British currency in 1971, initially with a nominal value of 25 (new) pence.
The farthing (from Old English fēorðing, from fēorða, a fourth) was a British coin worth one quarter of a penny, or 1 / 960 of a pound sterling. Initially minted in copper, and then in bronze, it replaced the earlier English farthing. Between 1860 and 1971, the farthing's purchasing power ranged between 12p and 0.2p in 2017 values. [1]
The British half crown was a denomination of sterling coinage worth 1 ⁄ 8 of one pound, or two shillings and six pence (abbreviated "2/6", familiarly "two and six"), or 30 pre-decimal pence. The half crown was first issued in England in 1549, in the reign of Edward VI , with a value half that of the crown coin .