British Emergency Tokens and Coinage During the Napoleonic Wars

I wrote this article for my local club. I thought that some of you might enjoy it. I am going to cut it up into a few parts.

When the United States won its independence from Great Britain in 1783, one of the worst problems our country faced was a shortage of “good money.” There was very little gold and silver coinage available, and the copper coin market was soon to be flooded with lightweight counterfeit pieces. Paper money was not an option. The currency that the Continental Congress had issued during the Revolutionary War, was virtually worthless. That gave all paper money a bad reputation.

I was surprised to learn the England faced almost the same problem during this period. Very few silver coins were in circulation, and most of the circulating copper coins were lightweight counterfeits. Paper money was still an option because it had not been discredited, but using it had its limits.



1774 Half Penny

The British Government issued copper half pennies and farthings (quarter pennies) from 1780 (1781 for farthings) until 1775. After the British coinage ended, counterfeiters filled the void with mostly low quality, light weight pieces. The situation was made worse by the fact that counterfeiters melted genuine pieces and used the copper to produce their bogus products.

At the same time, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution prompted many people leave their farms and work in factories, where they expected to be paid with coins. Factory owners were in a bind because they could not obtain enough coinage to pay them. In 1787 the Parys (copper) Mining Company had copper half penny tokens produced to pay their employees. Unlike the counterfeits that were plaguing the economy, these half penny tokens, which were struck on steam presses, were well made and attractive. The British Government posed no opposition to these tokens because they were made of copper and infringe on the king’s prerogative over gold and silver coinage.

As other companies issued tokens to pay their employees, a collector base developed for these pieces. The token makers issued “limited editions” to spark collector interest. James Condor wrote an early variety guide to thee series, and today these pieces are known as “Condor tokens.” There are more than 10,000 varieties.



1787 George III Shilling

The French Revolution and Napoleon Rock Europe

The French Revolution, the rise of Napoleon and his subsequent conquests of European nations, brough fear and loathing to much of Europe from the 1790s until the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. It not only frightened the royalty but many common people, including merchants and the working classes. What started as a demand from the French king for higher taxes to cover the national debt broke out into a revolution with drastic changes in the class of people who ran the country.

Ultimately the French king and queen were executed by the dreaded guillotine in early January 1793. That marked the beginning of the “Reign to Terror.” No Frenchmen was safe from accusations that could result in their execution. Some hoped that the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte would bring stability, but when he began his campaign to conquer all of Europe, concern deepened throughout England. The nations of Europe fought unsuccessfully to bring down the French regime almost from the time of its birth. The French revolutionaries responded by attempting to bring their movement to other countries. One of those attacks occurred on English soil in 1797.


The Battle of Fishguard

In late February 1797, French general, Lazare Hoche, launched an attack on the western coast of the British Isles. He had planned a three pronged assault with two diversionary operations and a main attack on Ireland. He hoped to link up with the revolutionary group, The Society of United Irishman, to expand his conquest. Bad weather and poor planning diverted the main assault and one of the diversionary operations, but a second diversionary operation landed in western Wales and proceeded toward the city of Bristol. A hastily formed group of British soldiers and local citizens defeated and captured the French forces, but what became known as “The Battle of Fishguard” deepened a crisis that had already weakened the British monetary system.


Coin Hoarding Begins

Once the news of the invasion reached the rest of England, panicked citizens hoarded large numbers of gold and silver coins from circulation. There was a run on the Bank of England which claimed much of the gold coinage that the bank had on hand. That forced British Government to abandon the gold standard for more than 20 years. The bank issued one and two pound notes in place of the gold coinage. Other banks were also allowed to issue their own currency if they had enough gold bullion to back their notes.

The shortage of British coins in circulation was caused by two problems. The most immediate crisis stemmed from hoarding caused by the panic, but there were other issues. Before the coinage reform of 1816, the British government had tried to circulate silver that had a face value that equaled their melt value. Based upon the discredited “commodity theory of money,” this system was unworkable. Whenever the melt value exceeded the face value of the coins, the coinage was removed from circulation. The solution was to issue a “token coinage” where the value of the silver in the coinage was below the face value, but the government would not enact that reform for many years.

Second, inadequate capacity of the mint located at the Tower of London were equally to blame. The mint was unable to issue enough coins to meet the nation’s needs and was sorely in need of replacement. The British Government responded by moving its minting operations to another location, Tower Hill, starting in 1806. In the short run, the demand for silver coins prompted the Bank of England to take more unusual actions.

Gold Coinage is Curtailed

At the beginning of the conflict with France, the British Government sent significant sums of money to European nations, hoping that those countries would wage an effective war against the French revolutionaries. Those policies were ineffective because those nations frequently used the funds for other purposes, and lost many battles to Napoleon. The flow of gold out of England and extensive hoarding after the Battle of Fishguard forced the British Government to suspend its production of gold Guineas in 1799, which were valued at 21 shillings. The government continued to issue half guineas and added a new denomination, the third-guinea in 1797. These small gold coins allowed the Bank of England to pay its dividends in gold. The British Government would not be able to issue larger gold coins on a regular basis until after the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815.



1798 Guinea



1800 Third Guinea



1806 Half Guinea

 

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Part 2

“Two Kings but not a crown”

During its usual course of operations, the Bank of England had taken in large numbers of silver dollar sized coins. More coins had been taken from the Spanish when they were at war with England. These pieces were mostly Spanish portrait style eight reale and some four reale coins, mostly featuring the Spanish King, Charles IIII. The bank also had some Pillar Dollars, a few French Ecus, Italian Scudi and ever a small number of United States Bust Type silver dollars. In 1797, bank counterstamped the dollar sized pieces with a small oval punch with the portrait of King George III. These counterstamps had been used to stamp hallmarks on silverware after taxes on those pieces had been paid.

In 1804, the bank commissioned the Soho Mint to use a larger octagonal punch with a portrait of King George that was taken from the Maundy penny. Counterfeits had been made of the oval counterstamps, and the intent was to combat that problem with the octagonal punches that had more complex designs. The octagonal punch pieces are scarcer than the coins with oval punch.

These coins were initially valued at 4 shillings and 9 pence. This prompted some naysayers to quip, “Two kings, but not a crown” since a crown, which had been of a similar size, was worth 5 shillings. In 1804, the value of these piece was raised to 5 shillings. Those who took a dimmer view of these coins quipped, “The bank to get its coins to pass, stamped the head of a fool on the neck of an ass.” These coins were very unpopular.

In 1804, the Soho Mint, which had introduced the concept of steam driven coin presses, began to strike silver dollars for the Bank of England. Instead of melting the Spanish coins, the mint overstruck them, leaving visible undertype on some pieces. British silver dollars, which have a visible date from the host coin, are worth a premium. Like the counterstamped pieces, these coins were valued at five shillings. The Soho Mint continued to produce 1804 dated British dollars until 1811.




Counterstamped Spanish Dollar - Small Punch 1797



Counterstamped Spanish Dollar - Large Punch 1804



1800 Maundy Penny - The portrait of King George III that appeared on this piece was used for the 1804 counterstamped Dollars.



1804 Bank of England Dollar

 

Part 3

Copper Coinage

By the late 1780s, it was estimated that at more than 75% of the coppers that were in circulation were counterfeits. In 1797 the British Government sanctioned Soho Mint to produce one and two pence copper pieces, which contained enough copper to melt for close to their face value. Both coins, which were large, thick and heavy, were nicknamed, “Cartwheels.” These were the first government sanctioned coins that were struck on stream presses. In 1799 and again in 1806 and 1807, the Soho Mint produced copper coins (pennies, halfpennies and farthings), in normal sizes for the British Government.




1797 "Cartwheel" 2 Pence



1799 Half Penny



1806 Penny

The Rise and Fall of Napoleon

Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1769 to parents who were very minor nobility. He supported the French Revolution in 1789 while serving in the French Army, and rose rapidly through the ranks as his military accomplishments continued. He engineered a bloodless coup in November 1799 which made him the First Consul of the Republic. In 1804, he became the Emperor of France.

Napoleon pursued his quest to conquer all of Europe. In 1805 his cause suffered a significant defeat when the British Fleet, under Lord Horatio Nelson, defeated the French and Spanish Navies off Cape Trafalgar near Spain. That defeat precluded a land invasion of the British Isles, but Napoleon’s navy was blockaded the British ports, which did serious damage to the economy. In the same year, Napoleon scored a historic victory at the Battle of Austerlitz.

In 1806 and 1807 Napoleon solidified his hold over eastern Europe with victories over the Austrians, Prussians and Russians. In 1808, he expanded his territory by taking control of the Iberian Peninsula and installing his brother, Joseph, as king. The Spanish and Portuguese, with the aid of the British, revolted and fought a guerrilla war which lasted for six years. Ultimately Napoleon’s marshals were defeated.

In 1813, Napoleon launched an invasion of Russia. Russian resistance plus the brutal Russian winter forced the French emperor to retreat. Heartened by this development, Austria and Prussia joined Russia. Their combined forces defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813. Once the coalition had defeated Napoleon, they crossed the French border and forced him to abdicate in April 1814.

The coalition forced Napoleon into exile to the Island of Elba which off the western coast of Italy, but the French leader was not finished. He escaped from Elba in February 1815 and returned to Paris where he regained control of the French Government. The Allies responded by forming another coalition. They defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June of 1815. This time the coalition exiled Napoleon to the remote Island of Helena in the south Atlantic where he remained until he died in 1821.


Bank of England Silver Tokens

As the land war in Europe continued, the Bank of England, a privately owned corporation that conducted much of the government’s financial affairs, began to issue silver tokens in 1811. These pieces looked like coins, but they were tokens because they were not official British Government issues. They featured a portrait of King George III on the obverse and the words “Bank Token,” the value and the date on the reverse. The Soho Mint struck these pieces. They were issued in two denominations, 1 shilling and 6 pence and three shillings. The bank issued these pieces from 1811 to 1816.




1813 British Bank Token, 1 shilling, 6 pence



1814 British Bank Token, 3 Shillings

 

Part 4

Privately Issued Tokens

Noting that a privately owned concern, the Bank of England, had issued tokens, other businesses were emboldened to issue tokens as well. These pieces, which some collectors call “post Condor tokens” were made in copper and silver. The copper pieces were issued in denominations ranging from a farthing to four pennies.

The silver pieces were issued in denominations ranging from six pence to half a crown (two and a half shillings). In an effort to avoid legal issues with the British Government, the issuers inserted language on these pieces which was intended to restrict their use to a limited geographic area. For example, one piece is my collection reads:


“Issued in Bristol August 12, 1811 to facilitate trade. Payable by Messrs Fras Garratt, Wm Terrell, Edwd Bird, Lant Beck & Frans H. Grigg”


The British Government didn’t like these privately issued forms of money, but it had little choice but to accept their usage because of the severe shortage of “good money” to run the economy. Unlike the Condor tokens, these pieces did not attract a large collector base at the time. They were made for utilitarian purposes, not coin cabinets.




A Privately Issued "Cornish Penny"



A Privately Issued Silver Shilling

British Coinage Reform after the Napoleonic Wars

Once Napoleon had been defeated and exiled permanently, the British economy returned to normal, but the British monetary system would never be the same. Parliament reduced the weight of the silver coinage to the point where the melt value of the coins was lower than their face value. This wise policy insured that the coins would remain in circulation. The Government replaced the guinea, which was worth 21 shillings, with the sovereign, which had a value of 20 shillings.

These reforms remained in effect for the next century and brought much needed stability to the British monetary system. Only the calamity posed by the next great conflict, World War I, would require the British to make further changes to their coins and currency.



A "New Shilling" After the Monetary Reform



The British Gold Sovereign, Valued at 20 Shillings, Replaced the Guinea, Valued at 21 Shillings



A 1798 Guinea