coins and currency The king's coinage was one of the most visible manifestations of royal authority. The number of mints was carefully controlled and permission to subjects to strike coins granted sparingly. Counterfeiting or clipping the coinage was regarded as a heinous crime. In 1350 Edward III declared counterfeiting to be high treason. As late as 1742 gilding shillings to pass as guineas was made treason. Nor were these idle threats. Phoebe Harris was burned before 20, 000 people in 1786 and Christian Murphy in 1789.

At the time of Caesar's invasion in 55 BC coins were circulating in southern England. They were largely imitations of Gaulish coins. Tasciovanus, king of the Catuvellauni, minted gold, silver, and copper coins (c.20 BC). After AD 43 the Romans substituted their own imperial coinage but by c. AD 430 the import and use of coins seems to have ended.

The peoples who penetrated the Roman empire—Vandals, Visigoths, Lombards, Franks, Angles, and Saxons—soon began to issue their own currency. At first the coins imitated Roman specimens, but later kings substituted their own names and images. In England, gold thrymsas and silver sceats appeared around AD 600. The earliest coins to be struck by an identifiable king came from the short‐lived Peada of Mercia (656). King Ecgfrith of Northumbria had his name on coins soon after (670–85). In the 750s, Pepin assumed the kingship of the Franks and introduced a completely new silver coinage, using the Latin term ‘denarius’. When this was borrowed by the English, they used the name penny but retained the symbol d.: twelve denarii made one solidus, and twenty solidi one pound or libra, giving the term £.s.d., which survived until decimalization in 1971. Within a few years Offa of Mercia was issuing his own silver pennies, which were the main form of currency for the next 600 years. Edgar carried out a great reform of the coinage (c.973), with a system for calling in worn coins for reissue. There was little alteration in the design of the silver penny in the two centuries following the Norman Conquest. A continuing problem was that of change. With only one denomination, pennies were cut to provide halves and quarters. The Anglo‐Saxon Chronicle reported in 1124 that a man who took a pound of pennies (240) to market might find only twelve accepted. The coinage was at its worst during the civil war of Stephen's reign, when rival coins circulated, many of them crude.

The later Middle Ages saw a great increase in trade. Edward I carried out a grand recoinage in 1279–80, minting new coins, silver halfpennies and farthings, to remove the need to cut. The innovation of Edward III's reign was the introduction in 1344 of gold coins—a florin (6 shillings), half‐florin, and quarter‐florin. They were augmented by nobles (80 silver pennies), half‐ and quarter‐nobles. Representations became more interesting. The half‐florin had a rather benign leopard (which gave the coin its popular name): the noble had an elaborate scene of Edward III in a two‐castled ship, perhaps commemorating his naval victory at Sluys in 1340. The noble was replaced during the reign of Edward IV by a coin of the same value, a noble‐angel, which had a representation of the archangel Michael. It was accompanied by a ryal (from French royaux), valued at 10 shillings and with a large Yorkist rose—hence its popular name, rose‐noble.

Tudor coinage was marked by three features—fluctuations in the value of the currency; the introduction of a great number of new coins; and the appearance of lifelike representations of the monarchs. Despite the political upheavals of the previous decades, Henry VII inherited a stable currency. But Henry VIII's systematic debasement of the currency from 1526 onwards drove up prices. Elizabeth brought the situation under control with some difficulty. The new coins included a magnificent golden sovereign by Henry VII in 1489 and a half‐sovereign; a gold Crown of the Rose at 5 shillings by Henry VIII and a half‐crown which settled down later as a silver coin and ran until the 20th cent.; and a George noble in 1526 on which the patron saint made his first appearance. Henry VII's silver shilling carried a good likeness of the king, known as the testoon (from French tête). Henceforth the national coinage carried some remarkable portraits—Henry VIII aged on a Bristol groat (1544–7); Edward VI's silver shilling (1550–3); an imperious Elizabeth gold pound (1561–82); a stylish Charles I shilling (1638–9), and a saturnine Charles II crown (1663).

James I celebrated the union of his two kingdoms in 1604 with a gold crown called ‘unite’ or ‘unit’, bearing the title ‘King of Great Britain’ and the legend ‘I will make them one people.’ But a more important development of his reign was the introduction of copper coinage. Lord Harington in 1613 was given a patent to produce copper farthings, known colloquially as Haringtons, with an intermediate status between coins and tokens.

The Civil War produced some desperate expedients, particularly ‘siege‐money’, made out of any metal to hand and cut into strange shapes. The Commonwealth issued its own coinage, with inscriptions in English: one legend ‘God with us’ prompted cavaliers to the obvious retort that ‘the Commonwealth was on one side and God on the other’.

As soon as he returned from his travels in 1660, Charles II tackled the question of the currency. An innovation was the use of Guinea gold from Africa, which settled at 21 shillings and was called a guinea. The need for small change remained a problem and thousands of tradesmen's tokens circulated. To meet this, Charles introduced copper halfpennies and farthings in 1672: on the new coins, Britannia made her appearance for the first time.

Charles was also king of Scotland and of Ireland. The Scottish coinage dated from David I's reign in the early 12th cent. But the number of coins struck was small, and there were mints only at Edinburgh, Berwick, and Roxburgh. Scottish coins had their own peculiarities. Their international standing was undermined in the 15th and 16th cents. by persistent debasement. At the union of the crowns in 1603 the Scottish pound was fixed at only one‐twelfth that of the English. The falling value of the Scottish currency derived in part from the practice of mixing silver with alloy to produce the base metal billon. James I introduced a billon penny and halfpenny: James III followed with a billon plack (from French plaque) valued at first at three pence and later at sixpence, a half‐plack, and a copper farthing (1466); in James V's reign the bawbee (1"d.) and half‐bawbee were issued, and in Mary's the hardhead was issued. The billon coinage was discontinued after 1603, but two pence pieces in copper called hardheads, bodles, or turners continued to be issued until the Act of Union.

The earliest known Irish coins were minted by Sihtric Olafsson in the Viking kingdom of Dublin after 990 and were copies of English silver pennies. No regular coinage was issued until after the Norman Conquest when John introduced coins stamped with a harp. There were no gold coins and, as in Scotland, silver was heavily alloyed. In the Tudor period the Irish coinage suffered great debasement, as did the Scots and English. In 1689 James II issued a bronze currency known as ‘gun‐money’ which, after his defeat at the Boyne, was bought in at metal value—less than 3 per cent of its face value. The fury caused by Wood's halfpence in 1723 had less to do with the coins, which were of respectable quality, than the state of Anglo‐Irish relations.

In Wales, no coins were struck until after the Norman invasion. Coin hoards have been found in Wales dating to the 9th, 10th, and 11th cents., but the coins were foreign, mainly English, Viking, or Arabic. Hywel Dda's silver penny (c 940) was minted at Chester, copied an English coin, and may have been a presentation piece. One persistent problem was the weight of coins. Individual merchants and financiers had long issued personal bills of exchange, from which developed the cheque and the banknote. The earliest extant cheque, dated 1659, is preserved in the Institute of Banking Library and is for £400. Paper credit expanded rapidly and by the end of the 17th cent. it was calculated that England and Wales had £11.6 million circulating as coins, but tallies, banknotes, and bills worth £15 million. The Bank of England began issuing large‐denomination printed notes in 1725.

At the time of the great recoinage of 1696 bimetallism was still the basis of the British currency, silver and gold providing the mainstay. Later in the 18th cent. declining production of silver made it excessively expensive and the currency went over to gold almost completely. There was continuing difficulty about small change. Some of George III's copper coins (‘cartwheels’) were too heavy to be practicable since they were intended to contain their own value in copper. The result was that the country was again flooded with token coins.

Four developments in the 20th cent. may be noted. Substantial inflation, particularly after the Second World War, caused several coins to be abandoned: the farthing, beloved of haberdashers, was withdrawn in 1960, and the halfpenny, which survived decimalization in 1971, succumbed in 1984. Secondly, in 1971 the whole coinage was decimalized in preparation for Britain's entry into the EEC. Thirdly, there was fierce debate in the 1990s whether Britain should join a European currency. Fourthly, the spread of credit cards and electronic banking meant that coinage played a smaller part in financial transactions, heralding the day when money would be carried only for sundry purchases like sweets and newspapers.

Coin

History

Human civilizations have long used metals as a medium for exchange. In addition to their long-lasting properties, metals lend themselves easily to melting and casting. As early as 1000 b.c., the Chinese were using a type of metal token to represent payment. These artifacts have been labeled "spade" and "key" money because of their resemblance to a digging tool and to the modern-day Yale key. Both types bore denominations and were cast from molds. Although the ancient Egyptians did not mint coins, gold weights and rings were used to trade for products and services.

The first record of Western coins did not occur until 700 b.c., in western Asia Minor. Evidence of coins made from a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver called electrum were found in the foundation of the temple to Artemis at Ephesus on the banks of the Aegean Sea. King Croesus of Lydia, who ruled from 560 to 546 b.c., has been credited with creating a bi-metallic system of pure gold and pure silver coins. These early coins typically carried imprints of animals, such as bulls, birds, insects, or mythical creatures. Engravings of vegetables were also popular. Imprints were stamped on one side of the coins with a tool bearing that particular design. Coin design was elevated to an art form during this period, and elaborately imprinted coins were afforded a high status. Many Greek cities vied for the distinction of having the most beautifully designed coins.

Alexander the Great built mints throughout his kingdom, from Macedonia to Babylon. He instituted uniform weights and types. It was during Alexander's reign that the coin portrait rose to popularity. Rulers, gods, and goddesses were the portraits of choice. By the fourth and fifth centuries a.d., engravers in Italy, and particularly in Sicily, were generally recognized as the experts in coin design. So revered was their skill that the engravers began signing their work.

Before the advent of the Industrial Age, the striking of coins was accomplished manually. A round blank of metal was placed over an anvil that had been fitted with an imprinted die. Another die was affixed to a pestle, which was then placed on top of the blank. The coin maker held the pestle in place with one hand and then brought a two-pound hammer down on top of the pestle. Remarkably, this resulted in seven tons of pressure, which forced impressions into both sides of the blank. The high relief typical of early Greek coins sometimes required two or three blows to achieve the desired effect. Heating the blank before striking often reduced the number of required strikes. This method allowed one coin to be struck every two seconds.

Raw Materials

Each country institutes strict guidelines for the composition of its currency. The outside vendors who provide the metal or "stock" to the mint must follow these guidelines to the letter. Originally, the U.S. penny (or cent) was composed of 95% copper and 5%zinc. In 1982, this composition was changed to a copper-plated zinc. A zinc alloy with traces of copper constitute the core of the coin, while the outer surface is electroplated with copper. Five-cent coins are composed of cupronickel, an alloy of 75 % copper and 25% nickel. Dimes, quarters, half dollars, and dollar coins are made from three layers of metal that have been bonded or "cladded" together. The outer layer is 75% copper and 25% nickel, while the core is pure copper.

In the factories of the outside vendors, the metal alloys are melted in furnaces and poured into rectangular molds. When the stock cools, it is rolled under pressure to the appropriate thicknesses. The rolling process causes the stock to harden excessively, requiring the application of a process called annealing. In this process, a series of heatings and coolings softens the stock and brings it to the consistency needed for shaping and stamping. The rectangular sheets of metal are cut into strips approximately 13 inches (33 cm) wide and 1,500 feet (457 m) long, and then rolled into coils. The mints purchase the coils according to their needs.

The Manufacturing
Process

Molding and engraving the master hub

• 1 When a new coin has been commissioned, sculptors employed by the mint develop a set of sketches. When one particular sketch has been approved and refined, the sculptor creates a clay model. The model can be anywhere from three to twelve times larger than the actual coin.
• 2 Plaster is poured over the clay model to create a negative, or reverse, plaster model. The words of the inscriptions are carved into the plaster in reverse. The sculptor repeats this process several times until the plaster model is perfect.
• 3 Next, a durable rubber mold is made by pouring epoxy into the plaster mold. The epoxy mold is mounted onto a transferengraver. At one end of the transfer-engraver, a stylus traces the epoxy mold. As the stylus moves, a ratio bar in the middle of the engraver reduces the design to the actual coin size. This reduced size is communicated to a carbide tool at the opposite end, which then cuts the design into a steel blank. The result is a positive replica called a "master hub." The sculptors examine the master hub and remove any imperfections.

Creating the working dies

• 4 Heat-treated metal is placed under a computerized lathe, where it is smoothed and polished into a precisely measured blank die. The master hub is pressed into the die. The result is called the "master die." The master die is used to create working hubs and working dies. The master hubs and dies are then placed in storage.

Punching out the blanks

• 5 The appropriate coil of metal is fed through a blanking press, which punches out round disks corresponding in size to the coin to be minted. The blanks are cut at a speed of 400 strokes per minute. The leftover scraps of metal are shredded and recycled for future use.

Annealing and pickling the blanks

• 6 The blanks are subjected to another annealing process and then placed in industrial washing machines and dryers. The lubricants used in these various processes cause the blanks to become stained and oxidized.
• 7 The blanks are next placed into revolving tubs or barrels filled with an acidic pickling agent. As the blanks are tossed together in the tubs, they become burnished.

Sorting and weeding the blanks

• 8 The blanks are sifted through a "riddler," a metal sheet fitted with holes that match the exact size of the particular coin to be minted. In this manner, misshapen and odd-sized blanks are weeded out.

Striking the coins

• 9 The perfect blanks are carried by conveyer belt to the coining press, where they are stamped with designs and inscriptions. A steel collar is inserted into the press around one of the dies. The die for the reverse side is loaded into the upper arm of the press. Hundreds of tons of air pressure push the blank into the collar. At the same time, the overhead die is forced down into the collar and onto the blank. The impact causes the impressions to form on both sides of the blank. The press releases the newly minted coin, and it moves along a conveyer belt to the inspection line.

  In some instances, the collar has grooves to make the ridged edges on the coin. Otherwise, the grooves are made after the striking process, on a tool called an upsetting mill. The size of the press varies from single capacity to ones that stamp four coins simultaneously. Single-striking presses generally stamp 400 coins per minute, with pressure loads up to 180 tons. Multiple presses can crank out 120 coins per minute under 250 tons of pressure.

Inspecting and sorting

• 10 The press operator spot-checks each batch of new coins with a magnifying glass. The coins move through another riddler that sorts out blanks that have become misshapen or dented during the striking process.

Counting and bagging

• 11 An automatic counting machine spits I out a predetermined amount of coins and drops them into large canvas bags. The bags are sewn shut, loaded onto pallets, and then moved by forklift trucks to storage vaults.

Quality Control

Inspections are carried out at many points throughout the engraving and manufacturing process. Alloys are analyzed using xray fluorescent spectrometers or chemical processes. The surface condition of the blanks is checked frequently for maximum center line average. The diameters of the blanks are measured with gauges such as micrometers. Weights are controlled by weighing a specific number of coins against a standard weight plus a pre-determined allowance.

The Future

In the mid-1990s, the U.S. made preparations to join other industrialized countries in the use of a dollar coin instead of a paper bill. Although backers point to the savings that the switch would bring, and environmentalists extol the virtues of phasing out the dollar bill, traditionalists see the dollar bill as a well-entrenched symbol of the United States. Unions and trade associations representing the paper industry also voiced opposition to the new coin.

Elimination of the penny has also gained support in recent years. Ironically, the American public's view of the penny as worthless has caused millions of people to stockpile them in jars and boxes at home, to be traded in for larger denominations at a later date. This has led to a shortage of pennies in the commercial arena. Decisions about eliminating coins are intensely political, attesting to the continuing symbolic power of the metallic coin.

Where To Learn More

Periodicals

"The Art of Money." The Economist, January 15, 1994, p. 91+.

Georges, Christopher. "House Republicans, Believing Change is Due, Consider Plan to Insert Coin in Place of $1 Bill." The Wall Street Journal, April 18, 1995, p. A22.

"Noncents." The New Republic, August 8, 1994, p. 7+.

Other

How Coins Are Designed and Produced. The Department of the Treasury, United States Mint, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 1992.

U.S. Mint: Its History and Coinage. The Department of the Treasury, United States Mint, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

—Mary F. McNulty

coin piece of metal, usually a disk of gold, silver, nickel, bronze, copper, aluminum, or a combination of such metals, stamped by authority of a government as a guarantee of its real or exchange value and used as money . Coinage was probably invented independently in Lydia or in the Aegean Islands and in China before 700 BC The earliest known example is an electrum coin (c.700 BC) of Lydia. The first U.S. mint was established in 1792. Mottoes used on many U.S. coins are "E Pluribus Unum" (1795) and "In God We Trust" (1864). Early coins were die-struck by hand and showed many individual variations. Standardized coins date from the use of a mill and screw machine (invented c.1561). Coins are usually stamped from rolled metal blanks, then milled. The final product bears a design impressed upon it between the upper and lower dies of a coining press. Milled or lettered edges have been used since the 17th cent. to discourage the removal of slivers of metal, especially from gold or silver coins. No gold coins have circulated in the United States since 1934, when the domestic gold standard was abandoned. Until 1965, silver was used in the minting of dimes and quarters, but by the 1980s silver had disappeared from American coinage altogether. In the mid-1990s, the European Union developed a common currency for its members. The new currency, called the euro, was inaugurated in 1999; coins and notes went into circulation in 2002, replacing the currencies of most EU members (see European Monetary System ). Canada introduced the first colored coin for circulation in 2004; it was a quarter featuring a poppy. See also numismatics .

coin / koin/ • n. a flat, typically round piece of metal with an official stamp, used as money. ∎  money in the form of coins: large amounts of coin and precious metal. ∎ inf. money. ∎  (coins) one of the suits in some tarot packs, corresponding to pentacles in others. • v. [tr.] 1. make (coins) by stamping metal. ∎  make (metal) into coins. 2. invent or devise (a new word or phrase). PHRASES: the other side of the coin the opposite or contrasting aspect of a matter.

COINAGE. An invented WORD or PHRASE and the process of inventing it. Like loan and borrowing, the term coinage is based on an ancient analogy between language and money. The creation of words without the use of earlier words is rare: for example, googol, the term for the number 1 followed by a hundred zeros, or 10¹⁰⁰, introduced by the American mathematician Edward Kasner, whose 9-year-old nephew coined it when asked to think up a name for a very big number. See NEOLOGISM, ROOT-CREATION, WORD-FORMATION.

coin Stamped metal discs of standard sizes used in commercial transactions. The earliest coins are of Lydian origin, from the 7th century bc. Early coinage also appeared in China and India. Ancient coins usually contained a specific quantity of precious metal, often gold or silver, and were stamped with the symbol of the issuing authority. With the introduction of bank-notes in the late 17th century and the decline of the quantity of precious metal in each coin, the role of coins changed.

coin
A. †corner-stone; †corner, angle, wedge;

B. †die for stamping money; piece of money; coined money. XIV. — (O)F. coin, †coing, wedge, corner, †stamping-die :- L. cuneus wedge.
So coin vb. make (money) from metal, make (metal) into money. XIV. — OF. coignier mint, f. coin. coinage coining money XIV; money coined XV. — OF. coigniage, f. coignier.

coin·age / ˈkoinij/ • n. 1. coins collectively: the volume of coinage in circulation. ∎  the action or process of producing coins from metal. ∎  a system or type of coins in use: decimal coinage. 2. the invention of a new word or phrase. ∎  a newly invented word or phrase.

Coín, Andalusia/Spain Lacibis, Cohine The Roman name gave way to the Arabic Cohine in 713; this meant ‘Pleasant Paradise’ and is the basis for the present name. It was recaptured from the Moors in 1485.

coin.
1. Disc used in a series of overlapping coin-like forms, resembling guilloche, set in horizontal or vertical strips called coin-mouldings or money-patterns.

2. Quoin.

COINAGE

COINAGE. SeeCurrency and Coinage .

coinage, see money

coin •adjoin, Boulogne, coign, coin, conjoin, Des Moines, Dordogne, enjoin, groin, groyne, join, loin, purloin, quoin, subjoin •Burgoyne • Gascogne • tenderloin •sirloin • talapoin

coinage •damage •image, scrimmage •pilgrimage •homage, West Bromwich •plumage •rummage, scrummage •manage, mismanage, pannage, stage-manage •carnage •cranage, drainage •spinach • concubinage • libertinage •linage • nonage • coinage •dunnage, tonnage •orphanage • baronage • patronage •parsonage • personage • Stevenage •cozenage • seepage • slippage •equipage • stoppage • warpage •groupage

COIN (kɔɪn) (USA) counter-insurgency