The coin's origins lie in the
English silver crown, one of many
silver coins that appeared in various countries from the 16th century onwards (most famously the Spanish
piece of eight),
all of similar size and weight (approx 38mm diameter, 25g
fine silver) and thus interchangeable in international trade. The Kingdom of England also minted
gold Crowns until early in the reign of
Charles II. The dies for all gold and silver coins of
Queen Anne and
King George I were engraved by
John Croker, a migrant originally from
Dresden in the
Duchy of Saxony. The British silver crown was always a large coin, and from the 19th century it did not circulate well. However, crowns were usually struck in a new monarch's coronation year, from
George IV to
Elizabeth II in 1953, with the exceptions of
George V and
Edward VIII. . The King George V "wreath" crowns struck from 1927 until 1936 (excluding 1935 when the more common "rocking horse" crown was minted to commemorate the King's Silver Jubilee) depict a wreath on the reverse of the coin and were struck in very low numbers. Generally struck late in the year and intended to be purchased as Christmas gifts, they were generally kept rather than circulated. The 1927 "wreath" crowns were struck as proofs only (15,030 minted) and the 1934 coin had a mintage of just 932. With their large size, many of the later coins were primarily commemoratives. The 1951 issue was for the
Festival of Britain, and was only struck in proof condition. The 1953 crown was issued to celebrate the
coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, while the 1960 issue (which carried the same reverse design as the previous crown in 1953) commemorated the British Exhibition in New York. The 1965 issue carried the image of
Winston Churchill on the reverse. According to the Standard Catalogue of coins, 19,640,000 of this coin were minted, although intended as collectable pieces the large mintage and lack of precious metal content means these coins are effectively worthless today. Production of the Churchill crown began on 11 October 1965, and stopped in the summer of 1966. The crown coin was nicknamed the
dollar. In 1940, an agreement with the US pegged the
Pound sterling to the US dollar at a rate of £1 = US$4.03. This meaning of "dollar" is not to be confused with the
British trade dollar that circulated in
East Asia. In 2014, a new world record price was achieved for a milled silver crown. The coin was unique, issued as a
pattern by engraver
Thomas Simon in 1663 and nicknamed the "Reddite Crown". It was presented to Charles II as the new crown piece, but ultimately rejected in favour of the Roettiers Brothers' design. Auctioneers
Spink & Son of London sold the coin on 27 March 2014 for £396,000 including commission. All pre-decimal crowns from 1818 on remain legal tender with a face value of 25p.
Decimal crowns After
decimalisation on 15 February 1971, the
25-pence coin was introduced as a replacement for the crown as a commemorative coin. These were legal tender and were made with large mintages. Further issues continued to be minted, initially with a value of
twenty-five pence (with no face value shown). From 1990, the face value of
new crown coins was raised to five pounds. ==Changing values==