Coins Due to the brevity of his reign, both proof and circulation strikes of Edward VIII's coinage are extremely rare, and highly desired by
numismatists. While silver coinage was not supposed to be issued until just before the coronation was to take place, the new brass
three-penny bit was already being made for introduction early in January 1937, and the entire stock was melted down. The same was done for other coins in
Commonwealth realms, although rumours of a
Canadian dollar surviving persist. Fewer than a dozen Edward VIII
proof sets are believed to have survived. A few
gold sovereigns were released, and the
Royal Mint has a collection of pattern designs for Edward's coinage. The British possessions of
British East Africa,
British West Africa, and
Fiji, along with the Australian-administered
Territory of New Guinea, minted a total of seven low-denomination coins with his name, but no image. Three Indian states,
Jodhpur,
Jaipur, and
Kutch, each produced a coin with his name in the local scripts. Prior to the introduction of coinage for the reign, twelve coins were sent to
vending machine manufacturers to enable calibration of their machines. They were never returned to the Royal Mint; six are held in private hands and are worth thousands of pounds. The other six are still missing. In 2020, an Edward VIII sovereign was sold at auction for £1 million, the most auctioned for a British coin. The following March, a five pound gold coin surpassed the record by its sale at auction for $2,280,000.
Postage stamps United Kingdom produced for the coronation with
monogram EIR (
Eduardus Imperator Rex, "Edward
Emperor [and] King"); large amounts of such
memorabilia had to be destroyed unsold when the coronation was cancelled. As early as the beginning of the reign in January 1936, the British
Post Office were preparing two issues after the series of four definitive stamps that was considered to be an "Accession issue". Therefore, work at the Post Office and
Harrison & Sons was done for a "Coronation issue" intended for 12 May 1937 and a final "Definitive issue". Essays for the former were made with the king wearing different military uniforms, such as the
Bertram Park's pictures of Edward VIII wearing the uniforms of the
Welsh Guards and
Seaforth Highlanders. In March 1936, the king accepted the idea of larger stamps picturing his effigy and castles. However, the abdication ended all design work despite essays having been made.
Australia , produced for the coronation of King Edward VIII, planned for 12 May 1937 The two-penny red stamp project of Australia used a photograph of the king in uniform. The sole ornaments were the denomination in an oval in the bottom right corner and the red "POSTAGE" bar at the bottom. Printing of this stamp began in September 1936 at the
Commonwealth Bank of Australia's printing branch. All operations were stopped after the abdication. Despite the destruction of the stock and all material needed for the printing, a signed corner block of six of the two-penny stamps is in the hand of a British collector. On 29 September 1936,
William Vanneck, 5th Baron Huntingfield,
Governor of Victoria, visited the plant and was invited to sign and date one of the finished sheets. In the name of the Commonwealth Bank, printer John Ash offered the sheet to the Governor in October, but had to claim it back on 16 December. The sheet was given back the next day, but the six-stamp corner block bearing the signature was missing. The Governor had already sent it to someone in England and could not retrieve it.
Canada In Canada, the official destruction of Edward VIII stamp dies and proofs took place on 25 and 27 January 1937; some essays were kept in the archives and the two plaster casts were saved by coin engraver
Emmanuel Hahn and a postal officer.
Other memorabilia There are stories of schools retrieving commemorative mugs and plates from pupils and replacing them with ones designed for the new king and queen, while many vendors put the redundant items up for sale anyway. ==See also==