[Game] World Coins Time Machine… Counting Backward by Year! (Plus Prize Coin)

September of 1689 gun money shilling!

 

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Mine is a halfcrown, William and Mary 1689.

This is a date with lots of variations. Firstly there are two versions of the shield on the reverse - this is the second one with the English and French arms quartered in two corners. (Type one has French bottom right and English top left.)
Then there are variations based on frosting in the caul of the crown, the interior, and whether there are pearls in the band. This one has no frosting and no pearls!

 

Keep getting closer to my few older coins...Paddy, that coin is such a beauty!

 

Very nice coin!

 

1689 -- Brunswick-Luneburg-Calenberg, 2 mariengroschen:

 

1689 British halfcrown, S-3435 (first bust w/ second crowned shield), PRIMO (on edge – first year of reign), caul and interior of crown frosted, no pearls (on base of crown)

Spink (Coins of England & the United Kingdom) lists 16 varieties of 1689 halfcrown. All have similar premiums.


This halfcrown is a different variety than that posted by @PaddyB #2641 because @Jimski 's has frosted caul and interior of the crown

Scanned from from Spink, Coins of England and The United Kingdom

After William and Mary’s accession (in 1689) to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/william_iii_01.shtml

Once king of the three realms, William used them to continue his crusade against Louis. In the spring of 1689, he took Britain and Ireland into a broad European confederacy against France. This 'Grand Alliance', including Austria, Spain and the Netherlands, had been brought together by William in the late 1680s, and would continue to fight until they reached a peace of exhaustion in 1697. William's first theatre of war after his accession to the throne therefore had to be Ireland, whose majority Catholic population remained loyal to James.
...
The deposed James II had returned to Dublin in 1689 in an attempt to regain the throne, and it took William until 1691 to crush resistance and free his hands for the wider fight. The Battle of the Boyne in 1690 was crucial to this. From 1691-7, however, the true European nature of the conflict was evident, as British forces - personally led by William - battled to protect the Netherlands against the French in Flanders.

By the time William died, in 1702, he was constructing a new grand alliance against France, and had achieved his goal in the Stuart realms. By capturing Britain and Ireland, and turning their resources against Louis, he had saved his homeland and Europe from French hegemony.

Effect in Britain

… William's determination to beat France meant he withdrew from the damaging struggle between the English Crown and its Parliament.

For nearly a hundred years, the royal court had faced Lords and Commons who had tried to restrict its power. The result had been a series of constitutional crises, which at their worst had resulted in a civil war (1642-6), and the collapse of the rule of James II …

 

1689-July, Irish halfcrown, “Gun Money”, Dublin Mint



@coin_nut posted a great historical summary of the Gun Money coinage at #2123

Large halfcrowns
https://oldcurrencyexchange.com/2014/06/15/james-ii-gunmoney-a-photo-blog-of-the-known-variations/

{The} large {32 mm} gunmoney halfcrown (or thirty pence, hence the Roman numerals ‘XXX’ above the crown) {was} issued by James II from about June 1689 until May 1690. This issue was superseded in April 1690 by a smaller coin {29 mm} of similar design which lasted until October 1690. The later coins were struck in Limerick as the Dublin mint was captured after the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690 and closed.

 

Thank you!

Thank you for putting in the historical context. I only have the coin files on one place so I was a bit rushed with the upload. Your coin is quite nice, and you also have a nice edge photo, unlike me! Mine has a very nice cable edge (reeding at an angle).

 

Well the followers of this thread seem to be getting fewer as each year ticks by! I hope we have enough to see us through at least into the 16th century. Anyway, here is my next - a James II Crown from 1688 - the year of the so called "Glorious Revolution" when we invited a Dutchman to take our throne!

 

I am still watching and waiting to post my remaining 4 coins, with 1519 being the earliest.

 

I have 13 more beginning at 1681

 

1688 -- Brunswick-Luneburg-Calenberg 6 mariengroschen:

 

1687 James II Threepence

 

I have both Crown and halfcrown photographed for 1687 - the latter only arrived today and is not brilliant but it fills another gap! The Crown is very nice I think.

 

1687 -- Austria, 6 kreuzer:

 

I will add a Leopold I AV 1/6 Dukat 1687-SHS Breslau Mint
Leopold I Holy Roman Emperor 1665-1705
This little coins were pretty neat.

 

For 1686 I have this James II shilling. The sixpences and shillings of James II seem much scarcer than the Half Crowns and Crowns.

 

1686 British tin halfpenny, James II, S-3419

Obverse legend: IACOBVS·SE(C)V(NDUS)


Reverse Legend: (BRIT)AN(-NI)A


Edge legend: NV(MMORVM·F)AMVLV(S·1)686(·)
Meaning: Money-servant (to serve as money) – 1686

AMVL on the edge


British tin coinage of 1684 thru 1692
From: The Coins of Colonial and Early America, Louis Jordan, University of Notre Dame, Department of Special Collections.
https://coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/Br-Copper.intro.html

Near the end of his reign Charles began a process that would free the mint from dependence on imported copper. Hoping to assist the ailing British tin industry as well as obtaining a higher minting profit for himself, Charles began minting tin farthings. The contract (the document is actually called a warrant in Eighteenth century legal terminology) to produce these coins was awarded ... on June 20, 1684. A square plug of copper was added to the center as an anti counterfeiting measure. The tin farthings were produced from 1684 through 1685. James II (1685-1688) started the production of a plugged tin halfpenny in 1685 and continued production through 1687 ... A few tin farthings were minted in 1684 with larger quantities produced in 1685-1687. Tin was a much less expensive metal than copper so that the intrinsic value of these coins was far lower. This yielded higher minting profits for the king, but the low intrinsic value turned public opinion against the coins. ... As tin was cheap and readily assessable, a number of counterfeit halfpence appeared in circulation. James used a bust left for his gold and silver coins but like Charles used the opposite profile on his halfpence and farthings, which displayed a bust right.

William and Mary (1688-1694) continued the production of tin halfpence and farthings with copper plugs from 1689-1692 ... By this time there were serious discussions about abandoning the tin coinage. Although minting profits were considerably higher, the effort had not revive the tin industry. Additionally, there was increased public pressure to stop the tin coins due to their low intrinsic value and the number of counterfeits that were appearing. Counterfeits especially hurt the poor in that anyone who unwittingly accepted one might not be able to pass it on and therefore would get stuck with a worthless coin. Further it has been suggested by some modern numismatists that it became apparent tin was a poor metal for coinage as it did not last as long as copper due to corrosion ...

In 1693 the monarchs reinstituted copper farthings and in 1694 produced copper halfpence (#2627) and farthings. An act of April 17, 1694 stopped all production of tin coins and offered to exchange the less valuable tin coins for new copper coins. Within a month, by May 16, 1694, the government had recieved £40,000 in tin coins from this exchange, which was over half of the entire tin production of £65,000.

Just 4 years remaining.

 

A rather nice threepence from 1685:

 

1685 -- Brandenburg 1/12 thaler: