maundy money

[Guest Peter]

Beginners question:

Were the silver 1d, 2d, 3d and 4d in general circulation during the 17th and 18th century?

Did this cease when bronze/ copper pennies came in at the end of the 18th C.?

If they were generally used then I guess that they would not have been known as maundy money at the time, even if they were distributed to the poor on maundy Thursday.

[Sylvester]

In the late 17th and early 18th century the 4d, 3d and 2d were general circulation coins.

The penny was a bit different as it was used for maundy, it probably did circulate otherwise there'd be no point giving it out as maundy.

By the mid 18th century i think the silver penny was too small really to be of much use as a circulation coin, and with silver gradually disappearing from circulation i think this coin shifted into purely maundy.

Two halfpennies could make up the penny anyhow. By the late 18th century the copper pennies arrived (and twopences), which eliminated the twopence from circulation, the threepence and groat disappeard during George III's reign along with most of the other silver coins. I think 1800 being the last issue before the recoinage of 1816 would have seen those denominations swept under the carpet.

By 1816 those four denominations were for maundy only.

[Geoff T]

You also need to bear in mind that, although the Maundy was distributed annually, not all the relevant denominations were struck every year, so that in some cases the Maundy would have had to be made up from what was available, as Sylvester implies.

It's generally reckoned that the striking of separate coins for Maundy distribution may have started sometime in the mid-late 18th century. Having said that, I know of someone who has what is claimed to be one of only three 1574 pennies with an acorn mint mark, which some people claim to be the earliest coin to be struck specifically as Maundy money.

G