Fifty Pence Faces

Meaningful Money

The new ‘Brexit’ coin enters circulation on Friday. This fifty-pence piece proclaims friendship with all nations while celebrating a day on which the UK distances itself from other countries in Europe; this is the kind of ‘friendly neighbouring’ epitomized by high fences.

Another 50p piece, shown below, bears a message stamped over the original minting from 1981. It is likely to have passed through Northern Ireland. FTQ [“Fuck The Queen”] was a Nationalist gesture, mirroring Loyalist countermarked coins which circulated from the late 1960s: these were stamped with FTP. The P stood for ‘Pope’. The most common stamped countermark on coins was UVF [Ulster Volunteer Force], and many such coins can be found on eBay. [see John M. Kleeberg, ‘Countermarks of the Troubles in Northern Ireland’, American Numismatic Society Magazine, 13:1 (2014), 25-35]

In Rummage, I write about the ingenious and illegal re-purposing of pennies by suffragettes who stamped ‘VOTES FOR WOMEN’ over the King’s head. This was an act to ensure that their message would circulate more widely. [For an overview, see Thomas Hockenhull, ‘Stamped all over the King’s Head: Defaced Coins and Women’s Suffrage’, British Numismatic Journal, 86 (2016), pp.238-45; https://blog.britishmuseum.org/defacing-coins-like-a-suffragette]

Historically, coins have been re-purposed in all sorts of ways. They became buttons, washers, jewellery, and (in quantity) flooring. This George III Irish copper half penny, below, appears to have been reused as a name tag (or token), with a crude hole bashed through it. It is stamped DRU HALL, with the possibility that a letter is missing after the ‘U’ (DRUM HALL?)

Other coins used as tags have survived the test of time, including several recorded on the database of the Portable Antiquities Scheme. This one (below) is another copper coin from the reign of George III, this time a penny. It is as worn as the ha’penny above, and countermarked with ‘S[Q?]UANCE’.

Unique ID: SOM-DBB1B9 https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/987905
Rights Holder: Somerset County Council, CC BY

This copper half crown is less worn than those above, and dates from 1817-1820. The laurel crown has been partially obscured with stamped initials ‘JGJG’, and ‘JG’ has also been stamped on the other side. It might have been reused as a pendant:

Unique ID: DUR-123BD5 https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/543336
Rights Holder: Durham County Council, CC BY.