I have always found these coins very interesting especially the tiny silver 1 pence coin that is a whooping 11.15 mm in diameter. I’m trying to collect a 1 pence coin for each monarch that issued Maundy money. But what is Maundy money you say ? It all started 1210….. It’s basically coins given to poor people in a religious ceremony where the Monarch would participate on Maundy Thursday (first Thursday before Easter.) They would give silver 1 pence totaling the monarchs age to the age amount number of men and the age amount number of women. Mini-History Originally the Maundy service would call upon the washing of the feet of the poor. In earlier ceremonies the high clergy members would wash the feet of the lower clergy, in other periods of time the washing was done by members of higher hierarchies. The ceremony has been known since the 7th century but King Edward the second was the first monarch to take part in Maundy Thursday. The first king to donate to the poor during this ceremony was King John which donated anything from forks to food to linen. King Edward III is said to have washed the feet of the poor and hand out money. In later ceremonies the monarch did not participate but they still gave out money to the poor, normally all in silver peaces and totaling the age of the monarch. They stopped washing feet in 1736 … I don’t blame them… but in the 2003 ceremony it was once again performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Side note: he is the guy that crowns the monarch…) In 1936 the set as distributed by King Edward VIII but it had King George V’s effigy. By 1953 it was common practice for the monarch to give out the Maundy money and still is to this day. On March 20, 2008 Queen Elizabeth II held the ceremony outside of England for the second time in history… she handed 82 pence to 82 men and 82 women. Ordinary silver coinage was used for Maundy money before 1822 but after they minted special coins in value of 1,2,3,4 =10 pence originally in sterling they changed the composition to .5 in 1921 and in 1947 cupronickel. Rarity of the coinage…….. Victoria Maundy money is quite common since she was the second longest reigning monarch. Anything after 1909 is quite rarer because Edward VII stated that the coins should only be give to those in the ceremony… Interesting stuff wouldn’t you say ?
another interesting note is that although the circulating coinage of the UK has changed portraits of Elizabeth II 4 different times, the Maundy coinage still carries the original portrait, as it has since 1953. Also, in 1947, the Maundy coinage was returned to sterling (.925), not CUNI.
All true I love them because of the monarchs on them. they mostly all have the same reverse, aside from the older ones and a few victorias..
Up until that time it was possible for collectors to buy the coins, often times much larger numbers were struck than were necessary for the ceremonies. Notice that the mintages of the coins during the 19th and very early 20th century were quite a bit more - this is why these coins are comparatively common now. They were often little novelties that found their way into being made into jewellry, in fact on Maundy Thursday 2001 I gave my wife a 1901 Maundy set that had been made into a charm for a bracelet.
