1.
Halfpenny (British decimal coin)
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The British decimal halfpenny coin was introduced in February 1971, at the time of decimalisation, and was worth one two-hundredth of a pound sterling. It was ignored in banking transactions, which were carried out in units of 1p, the decimal halfpenny had the same value as 1.2 pre-decimal pence, and was introduced to enable the prices of some low-value items to be more accurately translated to the new decimal currency. The possibility of setting prices including an odd half penny also made it practical to retain the pre-decimal sixpence in circulation alongside the new decimal coinage. The halfpenny coins obverse featured the profile of Queen Elizabeth II and it was the smallest decimal coin in both size and value. The size was in proportion to the 1p and 2p coins and it soon became Britains least favourite coin. The reverse of the coin, designed by Christopher Ironside, was a representation of St Edwards Crown, with the numeral ½ below the crown, only one design of obverse was used on the halfpenny coin. The inscription around the portrait on the obverse was ELIZABETH II D. G. REG. F. D, 19xx, where 19xx was the year of minting. Both sides of the coin are encircled by dots, a feature on coins. Annual number of released into general circulation A decimal quarter-penny coin was also proposed. Halfpenny British Halfpenny pictures Coins of the UK - Decimal Bronze Coins CoinWiki - Decimal Half Pennies
2.
History of the halfpenny
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The British halfpenny coin was worth 1/480th of a pound sterling. At first in its 700-year history it was made from silver but as the value of silver increased and it was finally abandoned in 1969 as part of the process of decimalising the British currency. Halfpenny, colloquially written hapenny, was pronounced /ˈheɪpəni/ HAY-pə-nee,1 ½d was spoken as a penny hapenny /əˈpɛniˈheɪpni/ or three hapence /θriːˈheɪpəns/, no documentary evidence of these coins is known to exist, and it is possible that there are other coins or issues still to be discovered. A few King Henry I silver halfpennies have been discovered recently, the issue is possibly a pattern or trial, but it is obvious that several specimens entered circulation. Two issues, both struck at the London mint, have been discovered recently, both are in the short-cross style of King Henry III, produced between 1216 and 1247, and are similar in design to the pennies, but only half the size. King Edward I successfully introduced the halfpenny as part of his new coinage, as with all coins of this period, the denomination was not written on the coin, which was worth its weight in silver, thus a halfpenny was half the size and weight of a penny. The fact that Kings Edward II, III, and IV also issued halfpennies makes it difficult to distinguish between them – in general, Edward Is coins are larger than his successors. As with other denominations, by far the majority of coins were produced at the London mint, in the Tower of London, but five other mints were active in Edward Is reign. The kings name appears in the inscription, usually EDW, EDWA, or EDWR R ANGL DNS HYB, or RICARD or HENRI respectively for the issues of Kings Richard II. During the reign of King Edward II, halfpennies were produced at the mints in London and Berwick. Three mints were actively producing halfpennies in the reign of King Edward III, 1327–1377, at London, Berwick, King Richard II produced all his halfpennies at the London mint. The obverse legend reads RICHARD REX ANGL – Richard King of England – around a front-facing bust of the king, the halfpennies of King Henry IV are difficult to identify, mainly because they have been heavily clipped or worn. The obverse legend reads HENRIC REX ANGL around a front-facing bust of the king, in 1412 the weight of the halfpenny was reduced from 4.5 grains to 3.75 grains, although coins were produced from the same dies as before. The halfpennies of King Henry V are an easier to identify. In the first reign of King Henry VI, halfpennies were produced at London and Calais. The designs are continuations of those of the earlier Henries, with the obverse legend HENRIC REX ANGL, the obverse inscription reads EDWARD DI GRA REX. During the short reign of Henry VI, halfpennies were produced at London. The obverse inscription was changed to read HENRIC DI GRA REX, halfpennies of the second reign of Edward IV are much like those of the first reign but they were also produced at Durham
3.
Pound sterling
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It is subdivided into 100 pence. A number of nations that do not use sterling also have called the pound. At various times, the sterling was commodity money or bank notes backed by silver or gold. The pound sterling is the worlds oldest currency still in use, the British Crown dependencies of Guernsey and Jersey produce their own local issues of sterling, the Guernsey pound and the Jersey pound. The pound sterling is also used in the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, the Bank of England is the central bank for the pound sterling, issuing its own coins and banknotes, and regulating issuance of banknotes by private banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Sterling is the fourth most-traded currency in the exchange market, after the United States dollar, the euro. Together with those three currencies it forms the basket of currencies which calculate the value of IMF special drawing rights, Sterling is also the third most-held reserve currency in global reserves. The full, official name, pound sterling, is used mainly in formal contexts, otherwise the term pound is normally used. The abbreviations ster. or stg. are sometimes used, the term British pound is commonly used in less formal contexts, although it is not an official name of the currency. The pound sterling is also referred to as cable amongst forex traders, the origins of this term are attributed to the fact that in the 1800s, the dollar/pound sterling exchange rate was transmitted via transatlantic cable. Forex brokers are sometimes referred to as cable dealers, as another established source notes, the compound expression was then derived, silver coins known as sterlings were issued in the Saxon kingdoms,240 of them being minted from a pound of silver. Hence, large payments came to be reckoned in pounds of sterlings, in 1260, Henry III granted them a charter of protection. And because the Leagues money was not frequently debased like that of England, English traders stipulated to be paid in pounds of the Easterlings, and land for their Kontor, the Steelyard of London, which by the 1340s was also called Easterlings Hall, or Esterlingeshalle. For further discussion of the etymology of sterling, see sterling silver, the currency sign for the pound sign is £, which is usually written with a single cross-bar, though a version with a double cross-bar is also sometimes seen. The ISO4217 currency code is GBP, occasionally, the abbreviation UKP is used but this is non-standard because the ISO3166 country code for the United Kingdom is GB. The Crown dependencies use their own codes, GGP, JEP, stocks are often traded in pence, so traders may refer to pence sterling, GBX, when listing stock prices. A common slang term for the pound sterling or pound is quid, since decimalisation in 1971, the pound has been divided into 100 pence. The symbol for the penny is p, hence an amount such as 50p properly pronounced fifty pence is more colloquially, quite often, pronounced fifty pee /fɪfti, pi and this also helped to distinguish between new and old pence amounts during the changeover to the decimal system
4.
Elizabeth II
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Elizabeth II has been Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand since 6 February 1952. Elizabeth was born in London as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and her father acceded to the throne on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She began to undertake duties during the Second World War. Elizabeths many historic visits and meetings include a visit to the Republic of Ireland. She has seen major changes, such as devolution in the United Kingdom, Canadian patriation. She has reigned through various wars and conflicts involving many of her realms and she is the worlds oldest reigning monarch as well as Britains longest-lived. In October 2016, she became the longest currently reigning monarch, in 2017 she became the first British monarch to commemorate a Sapphire Jubilee. Elizabeth has occasionally faced republican sentiments and press criticism of the family, however, support for the monarchy remains high. Elizabeth was born at 02,40 on 21 April 1926, during the reign of her paternal grandfather and her father, Prince Albert, Duke of York, was the second son of the King. Her mother, Elizabeth, Duchess of York, was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and she was delivered by Caesarean section at her maternal grandfathers London house,17 Bruton Street, Mayfair. Elizabeths only sibling, Princess Margaret, was born in 1930, the two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford, who was casually known as Crawfie. Lessons concentrated on history, language, literature and music, Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margarets childhood years entitled The Little Princesses in 1950, much to the dismay of the royal family. The book describes Elizabeths love of horses and dogs, her orderliness, others echoed such observations, Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant and her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved. During her grandfathers reign, Elizabeth was third in the line of succession to the throne, behind her uncle Edward, Prince of Wales, and her father, the Duke of York. Although her birth generated public interest, she was not expected to become queen, many people believed that he would marry and have children of his own. When her grandfather died in 1936 and her uncle succeeded as Edward VIII, she became second-in-line to the throne, later that year, Edward abdicated, after his proposed marriage to divorced socialite Wallis Simpson provoked a constitutional crisis. Consequently, Elizabeths father became king, and she became heir presumptive, if her parents had had a later son, she would have lost her position as first-in-line, as her brother would have been heir apparent and above her in the line of succession
5.
Mary Gillick
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Mary Gillick was a sculptor best known for her effigy of Elizabeth II used on coinage in the United Kingdom and elsewhere from 1953 to 1970. Born Mary Tutin in Nottingham, she was educated at the Nottingham School of Art, after making her first exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1911, she designed several medals to be used as awards, and several other, larger relief sculptures in stone and bronze. In 1952, Gillicks effigy design was selected from a field of seventeen to be used on general-circulation coinage for the new Queen Elizabeth, Gillicks design was notable for portraying the Queen uncrowned, and was the last to be used on the pre-decimal coinage. It is still used for Maundy money and various commemorative issues, Gillicks die master had insufficient relief, and the striking was too weak. Facial features and the folds in the shoulder disappeared. The problem was solved by re-cutting the dies, a cameo of Gillicks effigy of the Queen has been used on British commemorative stamps since 1966. She was married to another sculptor, Ernest Gillick, who is believed to have influenced her work
6.
Golden Hind
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Golden Hind was an English galleon best known for her privateering circumnavigation of the globe between 1577 and 1580, captained by Sir Francis Drake. She was originally known as Pelican, but was renamed by Drake mid-voyage in 1578, in honour of his patron, Sir Christopher Hatton, Hatton was one of the principal sponsors of Drakes world voyage. The queens support was advantageous, Drake had official approval to benefit himself and this would eventually culminate in the Anglo–Spanish War. Before setting sail, Drake met the queen face-to-face for the first time and she said to him, the explicit object was to find out places meet to have traffic. Drake, however, acted as a privateer, with support from Queen Elizabeth. Drake commissioned his flagship in Plymouth, the keel was registered in 1575. The majority of the work was done in 1576, and it was completed early the next year and it is described as a mid 16th century warship during the transition from the carrack to the galleon, and displaced about 100 tons. He first named his flagship the Pelican, but renamed it the Golden Hind on 20 August 1578 to honor his patron, Sir Christopher Hatton and he set sail in December 1577 with five small ships, manned by 164 men, and reached the Brazilian coast in early 1578. On 1 March 1579, now in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Ecuador and this galleon had the largest treasure captured to that date, over 360,000 pesos. The six tons of treasure took six days to transship and included 26 tons of silver, half a ton of gold, porcelain, jewellery, coins, there she shrewdly asked the French ambassador to bestow a knighthood on Drake. Her share of the came to at least £160,000, enough to pay off her entire government debt. Her return and that of other investors came to more than £47 for every £1 invested, after Drakes circumnavigation, the Golden Hind was maintained for public exhibition at the dockyard at Deptford, London. The ship remained there from 1580 to approximately 1650 before she eventually rotted away and was broken up. A table, known as the cupboard, in the Middle Temple Hall is also reputed to have made from the wood of Golden Hind. Upon the cupboard is placed the roll of members of Middle Temple, the ships lantern was hung in the vestibule of Middle Temple Hall but was destroyed during the Second World War. A replica of Golden Hind was constructed at Peter Pans Playground, Southend-on-Sea and it was constructed from 1947 and opened in 1949 together with a waxworks. It was popular at first, but by 1992 attendances had dropped, the ship was replaced by a replica of Blackbeards Queen Annes Revenge. This ship was demolished in 2013, the replica ship used in the TV series cost £25,000 to construct and had no rear gallery
7.
Britannia
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It is a term still used to refer to the island today. In AD43 the Roman Empire began its conquest of the island, establishing a province they called Britannia, in the 2nd century, Roman Britannia came to be personified as a goddess, armed with a trident and shield and wearing a Corinthian helmet. After centuries of declining use, the Latin form was revived during the English Renaissance as an evocation of a British national identity. A British cultural icon, she was featured on all modern British coinage series until the redesign in 2008, in 2015 a new definitive £2 coin was issued, with a new image of Britannia. She is also depicted in the Brit Awards statuette, the British Phonographic Industrys annual music awards, the first writer to use a form of the name was the Greek explorer and geographer Pytheas in the 4th century BC. Pytheas referred to Prettanike or Brettaniai, a group of islands off the coast of North-Western Europe, in the 1st century BC, Diodorus Siculus referred to Pretannia, a rendering of the indigenous name for the Pretani people whom the Greeks believed to inhabit the British Isles. Following the Greek usage, the Romans referred to the Insulae Britannicae in the plural, consisting of Albion, Hibernia, Thule, over time, Albion specifically came to be known as Britannia, and the name for the group was subsequently dropped. The Roman conquest of the began in AD43, leading to the establishment of the Roman province known in Latin as Britannia. A southern part of what is now Scotland was occupied by the Romans for about 20 years in the mid-2nd century AD, people living in the Roman province of Britannia were called Britanni, or Britons. Ireland, inhabited by the Scoti, was never invaded and was called Hibernia, Thule, an island six days sail north of Britain, and near the frozen sea, possibly Iceland, was also never invaded by the Romans. She appeared on coins issued under Hadrian, as a more regal-looking female figure, Britannia was soon personified as a goddess, looking fairly similar to the goddess Minerva. Early portraits of the goddess depict Britannia as a young woman, wearing the helmet of a centurion. She is usually seated on a rock, holding a spear. Sometimes she holds a standard and leans on the shield, on another range of coinage, she is seated on a globe above waves, Britain at the edge of the world. Similar coin types were issued under Antoninus Pius. After the Roman withdrawal, the term Britannia remained in use in Britain, Latin was ubiquitous amongst native Brythonic writers and the term continued in the Welsh tradition that developed from it. Following the migration of Brythonic Celts, The term Britannia also came to refer to the Armorican peninsula. )The modern English, French, Breton and Gallo names for the area, all derive from a literal use of Britannia meaning land of the Britons. The two Britannias gave rise to the term Grande Bretagne to distinguish the island of Britain from the continental peninsula
8.
Humphrey Paget
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Thomas Humphrey Paget OBE was an English medal and coin designer and modeller. Pagets designs are indicated by the initials HP, Paget was first approached by the Royal Mint in 1936 after the accession of King Edward VIII. Pagets recommendation had come via his earlier design for the obverse of a medal featuring the then-Prince of Wales. After some controversy regarding the direction the monarch was to face on the coinage, however Edwards abdication meant that, apart from a few trial dies, Pagets designs never reached the minting stage. A measure of the success of the Edward portrait can be seen in the fact that Paget alone was commissioned to design George VIs effigy in 1937 and he is the only artist to have a second obverse design approved for use in sterling coinage in the 20th century. The portrait of George VI has since described as the classic coinage head of the 20th century. He was awarded the O. B. E. in the Kings Birthday Honours of 1948 and his O. B. E. was gazetted in the Supplement to The London Gazette, Number 38311, Page 3377, published on 4 June 1948. Pagets later work included an effigy of King Faisal II of Iraq in 1955 and he also produced an effigy of Queen Elizabeth II for a commemorative Isle of Man issue in 1965. 1951 Australian 2 Shilling piece struck with Pagets initials at the Museum of Victoria History of Paget and his work at the Royal Mint Museum Thomas Humphrey Paget in, World of coins
9.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
