British History Coin Pack - Civil War

Product History

English Civil War Coinage - The conditions encountered during the English Civil War of 1642 - 1649 between Forces of Crown under Charles I and Oliver Cromwells army produced coinage slightly out of step with the development of coinage to date.

Charles I Half-Crown 1646 from the siege of Newark - The town of Newark was besieged several times during the Civil War. In order to pay the troops and to allow the local economy to continue rather crude coins were struck from pieces of hammered silver plate. The coin reproduced here is that of a half crown (30,CCC,pence). Carolus Rex (King Charles) is initialled on the obverse along with his crown.

Commonwealth Shilling 1653 - After the execution of King Charles I a republican coinage was produced with no face of a ruler. All such coinage shows the cross of St. George - the republican arms of England and for the first time in history of English coinage the inscriptions appear in English and not Latin. Later coinage did bear Cromwell's image.

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