I see a lot of talk about this on various Internet sites about the next changeover from Elizabeth to Charles, but how was it handled when it changed from George to Elizabeth?
I am assuming there wasn’t a recall and they just gradually replaced money as it needed to be.
Is anyone here who was alive and can actually remember?
Thanks
I wasn’t around, but there was no wholesale recall. The mints just started issuing coinage with Elizabeth on it, and the George currency kept circulating. As the George coins wore out, they were gradually withdrawn from circulation in the ordinary way.
When I was (much) younger, it was still common to get a George coin now and then in change. It’s much rarer now, but it still does happen occasionally: Got a George VI dime in my change!
Missed edit window: I was speaking of the Canadian coinage, not U.K., but I believe it was the same.
It’s somewhat different in that decimal currency came in during Liz 2’s reign. Not all the previous non-decimal coins automatically became void even then - I remember spending shillings, with George on, as exactly equivalent to 5 new pence. I can’t find anything online to substantiate this, however.
There was never a recall and never will be just because the monarch has died. Designs of coins and notes will happen in a relatively independent way with some crossover times allowed and no recalls. For example, the new plastic-based five pound note came in last September but the old one was legal until the 6th of May. That’s legal I shops - banks will still accept old fivers. Link: http://www.theweek.co.uk/78326/rare-5-notes-and-the-deadline-for-using-up-old-fivers
All old currency is accepted “at face value” too, though you might have to go to the Bank of England to get them to take it and if it’s really old the metal in it might be worth more than the face value so you’d be better of not giving iit to them.
Iow, no coin or note has been recalled since at least the last Georgian coins.
The shilling and two-shilling pieces doubled up as 5p and 10p pieces until the size of the coins was changed in the early nineties. They actually minted and issued 5p and 10p coins
a few years prior to decimalisation - presumably to help with the change over. Silver sixpences did duty as 2 1/2p pieces for a few years too.
But yeah, shillings and two shillings with George VI’s face on lasted for a good while, but I suspect only the later issues - from 1947 onwards the coins had no silver content.
Elizabethan 5p, 10p and 50p coins were recalled due to making new issues smaller.
I first visited the UK in 1992, and Elizabeth II shillings were still circulating; I brought one home among the coins I kept as souvenirs. I also brought home George VI and even a George V shilling that came into my hands during the 4 weeks I was there (couldn’t tell you exactly where they are now–that was at least 3 moves ago–but they should be around here somewhere).
When I visited again in 2014 I don’t distinctly recall any shillings still going around. I suppose it’s probably about as common as a Bicentennial (1976) quarter turning up in your change here in the US–they still pop up, but very rarely now.
Eldest gave me a ha’penny minted in 1942. Lotta copper there, since the next year the US decided copper and nickel were too strategic and minted 5-cent pieces in silver.
You wouldn’t find one in circulation - the new issue coins were reduced in size and the older ones recalled.
duplicate
I am old enough to remember pre-decimal coinage. We had a jar of pennies that included a couple with Victoria on them, never mind George.
Foreign exchange officse will stop accepting Liz notes shortly after the new notes are circulated. Just as it is hard to pass a US $100 bill now that doesn’t have the large gold “100” on the back. Old ones are rarely accepted in third world countries. Or any bills that are “soft” as compared to crisp.
Traditionally, the new coins have been issued to mark the coronation. That was sixteen months after George VI died, though, so coins with his likeness, dated 1952, continued to be minted until they changed over. Afterwards, coins with George VI and his predecessors kept circulating. As others have mentioned, the current lack of circulating coins with other monarchs on them is unrelated to the change in monarchs.
There was no change to any British banknotes due to George VI’s death, as he wasn’t on any of them. The Bank of England only put the Queen on their notes starting in 1960 (and except for a few commemorative notes to mark jubilees and such, none of the banks in Scotland or Northern Ireland do). He was on the notes of quite a few other currencies, though, and as far as I know it worked like any other redesign.
I think Canada is the only country where you still stand any reasonable chance of finding George VI on a coin in your change, as he was on a base metal coin (the nickel, 5 cents) that is still around in more-or-less the same form. And there are probably still a handful of silver dimes and quarters around too. (Australia has never resized its 5/10/20 cent coins, so maybe there are a few 6d/1s/2s coins lurking around? They were silver right up until the change to the dollar, though, so if they are around they’ll be very scarce.)
Thanks for the replies very interesting.
I guess it’s like every now and then I can still come across a US bill that is a “silver certificate” and not a federal reserve note.
Australia didn’t just decimalise, we also changed from the pound to the dollar. So I’m not sure that keeping shillings on as alternative 5 centses was ever considered - anyway, dating back to the 70s I can’t remember seeing one in use, whereas shillings were still medium common in the UK in the early 90s
We used to have a set of pre-decimal currency in a resin block, and my memory is they were all the wrong sizes to pass for modern.
Someone tried to pay with an old style 50p at work only last year… I think they’d been living overseas for years, but still. I was the only member of staff there who remembered them at all.
You might very rarely find a shilling someone’s passed off as a 10p, but only in the same way you get the odd bit of foreign currency in change if you live in an area with a lot of tourists. I think they’re purely decorative at this point, they’re not legally worth anything, you can’t change 'em at the bank even (can’t change the old 50s, 10s and 5s either for that matter).
That’s kind of what I expected. Even if there was never an active attempt to remove them, their silver content would have done them in.
The 5, 10, and 20 cent coins are all the same size as their pre-decimal equivalents. I think Australia is the only ex-LSD country that hasn’t shrunk their decimal coins, actually.
Same for me.
I used to get Victorian ones occasionally in the 1960s, very worn by then.
The pre-1947 silver, which still had silver content, was gradually culled out of circulation.
Someone tried to pay me with a shilling this very year. They claimed to have been given it in change. Passing off as a 10p, these days, of course, not 5. Not as common as the similarly sized American quarters.
I also occasionally see legal tender which isn’t easy to recognise. Scottish money, Ulster money, coins with crabs on them from Gibraltar or the Bailiwick of Guernsey or suchlike.
When I was a kid I had a presentation case with one example of each of the post-decimalisation coins in it. Including the old decimal ha’penny. ½p. People tend to forget they existed, I think.