18th Century Coinage

[Guest Michael Hinde]

Possibly an obscure question, but do any of the experts on here know the answer to this puzzler?

'Which 18th Century English Monarch increased the size of the countries coins to accentuate his/her importance?'

Any help much appreciated!!

[Peter 615]

I can narrow it down to William 111,Anne or George 1,11 or 111.

A complete reasoned guess would be G 111.

[Guest Michael Hinde]

Yeah I narrowed it down that far but endless research online and in the Library can't get any further!

Anne was the original guess but only on the basis that a woman may be more vain about her looks..... not the most educated of guesses!

[mint_mark 9]

Possibly an obscure question, but do any of the experts on here know the answer to this puzzler?

'Which 18th Century English Monarch increased the size of the countries coins to accentuate his/her importance?'

Any help much appreciated!!

The thing is, back then the value of the metal in the coins had to match the face value of the coins, so you couldn't just make coins bigger without changing their value too.

I had a quick look through a book and it says there were several times when the relative values of gold, silver and copper varied, so new coins were a different size to older coins (usually smaller... inflation). Within each reign there were often several designs and portraits of the monarch too... maybe some changes due to vanity?

Finally, the question says 18th century and increased size, so you have to think of the 1797 cartwheel penny and two pence coins (of George III). They are some of the largest British coins, and the first official coins manufactured using steam power, but they are really only large because 1 and 2 pence was a lot of copper in those days!