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Message:: [QUOTE="GDJMSP, post: 1497695, member: 112"]The number of recipients is also determined by the Monarch's age. You see, the ceremony goes all the way back to the 13th century. The very first Maundy ceremony reportedly only had 13 recipients, the number of which symbolized the 12 Apostles and Christ. But over the years the ceremony and and certain facets of the ceremony were changed. That changing continued somewhat even in the 20th century. But basically it has remained the same since Charles II.  The sets that were handed out by the Crown to the poor were in small purses with the coins just being loose inside the purse. It was only in those sets that the number of coins equaled the monarchs age in pence. The sets sold by the banks and in the hard cases, those sets only had 4 coins in them - a 1, 2, 3 and 4 pence coin.[/QUOTE]