Good evening, I am working on finishing my 20th century type set for Great Britain. when i was reviewing the types to collect i found that the silver penny, silver 2 pence, silver 3 pence and silver 4 pence were not available. after a bit of research I found out that these were the "Maundy coins" used by the british monarch on maundy thursday. my question is, should these be considered actual coins since they were never meant for circulation or even collection since there was such a small mintage ( around 3000 per coin, per year)? I thought this would be a great place to discuss these and see if there are any collectors out there who actully have more than 1 or 2. thank you for your time.
Howdy pawjtr - Welcome to the Forum !! I just love maundy coins - the history behind them and the way they are handed out each year is just an added bonus to me. I currently collect maundy sets in the original cases from prior to 1920 - but I do not collect individual coins. Whether they should be part of your collection or not is up to you to decide. I do not know for sure if they can be considered legal tender in the UK today - I think not. But prior to decimalisation they certainly were. It is not at all uncommon to find circulated examples of older maundy coins.
i agree they are very interesting. if i chose to collect them, would it be possible to collect a full 20th century collection while not spenging an arm and a leg?
That depends entirely on how much an arm and a leg is worth to you But seriously - some of the early 20th century sets are not what I call cheap. Most of them are well over $100 - some approach $200 - for a nice uncirculated original set. And that's if you buy the whole set at the same time. Buying nice examples once coin at a time is even more. British coinage is extremely popular right now and the prices are through the roof. Go check on ebay - do a search under the World Coins category for maundy coin. You'll see what the prices are soon enough.
They are legal tender in New pence and have been since 1971 when they were revalued at 2.4 times their original face value. The maundy coins (4d-2d) up to the reign of George III were circulating coins (only the penny was reserved for maundy purposes, and even that would have circulated, otherwise what would be the point of giving it out as maundy, if the recipient couldn't spend it on a loaf of bread?) No one knows exactly when but from the 1760s-1816 the maundy money shifted out of circulation, to purely maundy.
lets see, 100-200$ per set, 100 sets...... I think im going to wait on trying to collect these with any vigor. if i happen to see one on ebay that is less than 20$ per coin i will bid on it. if anybody has a dealer that is willing to part with them for this price I would be happy to work with him. I don't need to have them in perfect condition either.
Maundy Coins are a very interesting part of British coinage.Maundy coins as we know them were first struck in King Charles II's English hammered coinage. These were also put into circulation.The current series of Maundy Coins date from 1820.I have always found any after 1746 to be difficult to find.I was extremely lucky to get a 1964 Maundy Groat. The complete set as given out in the bags were retained by the recipients & their families.These occasionally turn up,but will command a very high price.
