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Before Decimal Day in 1971, sterling used the Carolingian monetary system , under which the largest unit was a pound (£), divisible into 20 shillings (s), each worth 12 pence (d), the value of two pre-decimal sixpence coins. Following decimalisation, the old sixpence had a value of 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 new pence (£0.025).
The 1877 Empress of India Medal depicts Victoria with a small crown. Boehm's Afghanistan Medal (1881). 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.
Value Notes Half penny 1 / 2 p Sometimes written "ha'penny" (pronounced / ˈ h eɪ p n i / HAYP-nee), but normally called a "half-pee"; demonetised and withdrawn from circulation in December 1984. One penny: 1p Two pence: 2p Five pence: 5p A direct replacement for the shilling. The coin was reduced in size in 1990. Six pence: 6p
Over the long reign of Queen Victoria, two different obverses were used. The farthing of 1860 carried the so-called "bun head", or "draped bust" of Queen Victoria on the obverse. The inscription around the bust read VICTORIA D G BRITT REG F D (abbreviated Latin: Victoria by the grace of God queen of Britain defender of the faith). This was ...
The crown coin was nicknamed the dollar. In 1940, an agreement with the US pegged the Pound sterling to the US dollar at a rate of £1 = US$4.03. This meaning of "dollar" is not to be confused with the British trade dollar that circulated in East Asia. In 2014, a new world record price was achieved for a milled silver crown.
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.
The British shilling, abbreviated "1s" or "1/-", was a unit of currency and a denomination of sterling coinage worth 1 ⁄ 20 of one pound, or twelve pence.It was first minted in the reign of Henry VII as the testoon, and became known as the shilling, from the Old English scilling, [1] sometime in the mid-16th century.
The Old Head coinage obverse (1893 double sovereign shown). The Old Head coinage or Veiled Head coinage were British coins struck and dated between 1893 and 1901, which featured on the obverse a portrait by Thomas Brock of an aged Queen Victoria wearing a diadem partially hidden by a widow's veil.