Little Britain

England. George IV. 1826 Farthing.

Laureate head left, GEORGIUS IV DEI GRATIA / Britannia seated right, holding trident, with shield bearing saltire of arms, BRITANNIAR: REX FID: DEF:. S-3825.

No, I'm not writing about the BBC show, Little Britain, though I have to admit it's one of my favorites! My wife and I really enjoy the show, but our children don't seem to understand why. I'm sure those from my parent's and grandparent's generations can relate a bit... I have no idea why they found The Honeymooners so funny. "To the moon, Alice... to the moon!" What?! They used to lose it though when they heard that! It's funny how generations differ.

I degress, and this is a blog about coins. So, about this coin you ask... why "Little Britain"? Hmm, well, it's British! And, it's little! The farthing was worth 1/4 of a penny. I say was because farthings ceased to be legal tender at the close of 1960. The demise of the farthing was brought on by inflation... its buying power had eroded too much for it to retain any usefulness in commerce.

This particular coin was designed by William Wyon after Benedetto Pistrucci's design was rejected by the king. Apparently, the king thought Pistrucci's design a little less than flattering! I happen to agree with George IV and much prefer this portrait to that designed by Pistrucci.

One of my collecting goals is to obtain at least one coin for each English monarch from the time of C'nut to the current monarch, Elizabeth II. A pretty daunting task, that, and for reasons of budget, I began with the House of Hanover, which includes

George I
George II (see my previous blog entry about my George II shilling)
George III
George IV
William IV
Victoria

I currently own at least one coin from each, with the exception of George I. I'm one coin away from completing my first type set!

By George!

George II, 1758 AR Shilling

Old laureate and draped bust left, GEORGIVS•II•DEI•GRATIA• / Crowned cruciform shields, plain angles, 17-58 M•B•F•ET• H•REX F D B• ET•D•S•R•I• A•T•ET•E• around. S-3704.


The reverse legend is quite impressive! The abbreviations, spelled out, read: Magnae Britanniae Franciae ET Hiberniae REX Fidei Defensor Brunsviciensis ET Luneburgen-sis Dux Sacra Romani Imperii Archi-Thesaurarius ET Elector. This translates to: "By the Grace of God, King of Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, Duke of Brunswick and Luneburg, High Treasurer and Elector of the Holy Roman Empire." I'm pretty impressed, but then again, I'm only a Business Process Analyst!

I am an Anglophile... always have been... always will be! My wife and I honeymooned in England in April 2007. We're both hoping to retire somewhere in England. Heck, there's even a town named Telford. It must be a great place, right?!

I've long been fascinated with English history. Being 50% English and 50% Danish, I suppose that that fascination is only natural, if not inevitable. A good portion of England was ruled off and on by the Danes from the 9th through the 11th centuries, with England uniting under the Danish king Canute. So you see, it's in my heritage... both of 'my people' shared the same island!

I've wanted to assemble a collection of coins of the English monarchy ever since I began collecting ancient coins. I didn't start my English monarch collection, however, until just last year. I've since acquired a few beautiful English coins, mostly from the monarchs of the House of Hanover (George I, 1714-1727 to Victoria, 1837-1901). This particular coin is from George II, who ruled from 1727-1760.

This is without a doubt, the coin I enjoy most in my English monarch collection! The toning accentuates the devices and legends and it's a big enough coin for my eyes to see the detail! So far, my experience with collecting these English coins has been every bit as fulfilling as collecting ancients.