I've read in books about the recoinage of 1860 was this an event like 1971 where new coins were introduced and anything before those dates were taken out of circulation? Thanks for any help. Dave.
Sort of ... The price of copper was getting too high (copper coinage before then actually was pure copper). So a decision was made to recoin in bronze. The silver denoms were not aqffected. The copper coins pre 1860 were legal tender until (I believe) 1869. You could still, after that date, excahnge at a bank for face value (eg, an 1859 penny for a bronze post 1860 penny). As I said, silver was unaffected. In actuality, until the old shillings and florins were demonitised (Dec 1990 and Jul 1993 respectively), one could, in theory, spend an 1816 shilling in the UK. Gold too was unaffected in the switch. Hope that helps!
