Florin (British coin)
The florin was a British coin worth two shillings , popularly known as the two-bob-piece . It should not be confused with the medieval coin of the same name , which in England was worth six shillings. The name is derived from this coin, which originally came from Florence . It corresponds to the German currency denomination guilder .
The first silver florins were minted in 1849 with a diameter of 28 mm and a weight of 11.3 g. Both the DG for dei gratia (by the grace of God) and the FD for fidei defensor or fidei defensatrix (defender of the faith), which is common on British coins, were missing in their transcription . This is why this coin is also known as Godless Florin , less often it was also called Graceless florin . It was unpopular due to its unusual design and was therefore replaced in 1851 by the Gothic Florin , which again pointed to God's grace. Unusually, a grid was used for the inscription and the year was displayed in Roman numerals, and the diameter was increased to 30 mm. From 1887 onwards, Latin script and Arabic dates were used again.
The obverse of the coin showed the respective ruling sovereign, the reverse the crowned coats of arms of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, which were separated by the cross-shaped scepter, later only a crowned rose flanked by a thistle and a shamrock.
The weight of the silver coin was 11.3104 grams rough or 10.462 grams fine with a fineness of originally 925/1000, which was only 500/1000 from 1920. In 1947 the silver coin was replaced by a copper-nickel coin of the same size. While the word “Florin” no longer appeared on the coin, it was still used in everyday language. Specifically, Florins has among the formerly British colonies z. B. 1964 defeated Malawi .
The purpose of this nominal coin, which corresponded to a tenth of a pound , was the "gentle" introduction of the decimal system. However, it took over 100 years, until 1971, before this was actually realized. After the change, the florin was equivalent to 10 new pence . The new 10 pence pieces kept the size of the florin coin until 1991. It was not until 1993 that the Florin coins were officially suspended.
The double florin was a silver coin weighing 20.92 g that was first issued in 1887. This was supposed to support the "soft" introduction of the decimal system, but it was not well received. The lack of imprint of the coin value, combined with the great resemblance to the long-established Crown coin, which, however, represented one shilling more in value, earned the double florin the nickname Barmaid's grief (English, German for example: waitresses grief) because it was difficult to tell the difference between the two coins in poor lighting conditions, such as in restaurants. Therefore the double florin coins were withdrawn around 1890; there are only a few copies left in collectors' circles.
literature
- Heinz Fengler, Gerhard Gierow, Willy Unger: Lexicon Numismatics. transpress VEB Verlag für Verkehrwesen , Berlin 1976, licensed edition by Pinguin-Verlag Innsbruck, ISBN 3 524 00 598-5 .