(With thanks to George, our year 10 work experience student who prepared this informative exhibition)
HOW I BECAME INTERESTED IN NUMISMATICS
Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects.
I am especially interested in British coins, from old new brand new. Sometimes even foreign coins.
It all started when I was very young and I had lost my first baby tooth, as normally done I put it under my pillow overnight.
In the morning, to my surprise there was an old coin, however I can’t remember what it was (probably a sixpence). This one coin started a chain reaction of me saving up money to go to Tavistock market and buy more old coins.
As time went on this became a hobby of mine and it still is to this day.
It is a very exiting hobby as you can never get bored of it and there is always something new and interesting around the corner.
So, I would recommend getting into collecting coins, and other objects.
One good place to find exiting coins would be in antique shops (mostly in Liskeard), I find a lot of interesting and unique coins, notes, badges in them.
THE HISTORY OF COINS IN CORNWALL
The first thing that you will want to know about coins is what each part and stage of making them is called:
The two sides of coins are commonly known as ‘Heads and Tails’ however they have technical names:
Obverse being the ‘heads’ side, and the Reverse being the ‘tails’ side of the coin.
- A Blank, references a piece of cut metal yet to be struck.
- A Flan is the whole piece of metal after striking.
- A type is the central design.
- A legend is the inscription. Coins without this are called ‘mute’
- A field is not a large piece of land, full of grass! But it is the flat part of the coin between the main design and the inscription or edge.
- An Exergue is the part of the coin below the main design, usually occupied by the date.
- ‘Hammered’ is a method of making a coin, referring to the old craft of striking a coin between dies hammered by hand.
- ‘Milled’ is also a way of producing coins, struck between dies in a coining press, the presses were originally hand powered from 1560-1800, then powered by steam from 1790, and then by electricity from 1895.
The First Coins
The story of coins starts with the ancient Lydians (in modern day Turkey) in around 600 BC. (BCE)
These first coins featured the head of a lion and were made from electrum, which is an alloy of gold and silver.
Currencies had existed long before this, such as the trading of animals or precious metals, however coins were more portable and durable.
The idea and methods of making coins spread across Europe soon after 650 BC (BCE). Coins then first came to Britain through trading between The Celtic tribes and Gaul.
Coins In Roman Britain
The Romans invaded Britain in around 43 AD (CE) bringing lots of great advancements in technology with them, including their own coins and currency.
This Roman Coin was found at Trebrownbridge, near Liskeard, it was identified at the Royal Cornwall Museum as Roman. Even though we know that the Romans did not fully invade Cornwall, apart from their forts at Calstock and Nanstallon, Cornwall still had a significant economic relationship with the Romans.
Early Liskeard and coins
In 1240 Richard Earl of Cornwall gave Liskeard a charter (a document granting the townspeople certain rights).
This coin was produced at Liskeard for the 750th anniversary of Liskeard’s Charter, June 5th, 1990, has Liskerrett 1240-1990 around the town crest on the Obverse side.
On the Reverse is a replica of one face of a gold penny minted c 1250 under the authority of Richard, Earl of Cornwall who was in charge of the Royal Mint for his brother, King Henry III.
Stuart House in Liskeard, so-called because Charles I lodged there for several nights in 1644 during the English Civil War.
During the Civil War, King Charles I set up temporary mints in various locations, often in towns that were considered strategic and to provide coins to the local area. Liskeard may have been one of these locations.
Pre-Decimal Coins
Coins, before we had pounds and pence, the amounts and names of coins were a lot more confusing. Before Decimalization in 1971, there were Pounds, Shillings and Pence.
There were 240 pence in a pound and 12 pence in a shilling. Also, many different coins worth different amounts.
In the 17th century, coins were made of precious metals. Some people would shave or clip off swarf (small shavings of metal) leaving no trace of what they had done. They then melted this metal down and illegally sold it for their own profit.
To stop this from happening they started to put ridges on the edge of coins, this would make any shaving or clipping visible and harder to get away with.
The first coins to have this were made in the Spanish Netherlands.
This is a set of travelling coin scales in a cardboard box, used to weigh or balance sovereigns (a sovereign was worth 20 shillings or one pound). It is a rocker balance mechanism, possibly made by Harrisons in the 19th Century. Coin scales were used to check a coin’s weight and authenticity. They allowed people to make sure that the coins they handled were genuine and had the correct weight.
The Cornish Penny
Cornish Pennies were trade tokens widely used in the 18th and 19th century in Cornwall. They were often given to Cornish miners by local businesses and mines as payment instead of money, these could then be used within the local economies of the community.
This Cornish Penny is dated 1811.
It has the words ‘For the accommodation of the county’ and depicts a pilchard between cakes of copper and ingots of tin. The obverse of the token depicts a Cornish Beam Engine. The reverse depicts three industries of copper, tin, and pilchards.