THE NIMBLE COPPER

Evening Star, Issue 22106, 13 August 1935, Page 6

THE NIMBLE COPPER

ONCE MURE IN DEMAND AS PETTY GASH SIGN OF RENEWED PROSPERITY . The Royal Mint has been exceptionally busy this year, not only in making a large number of Jubilee Medals, but in satisfying increased demands for currency (writes H. P. Hemming in a Scottish journal). Considerable quantities- of coins have been manufactured, largely pennies and half-crowns. This is a sure and welcome sign of greater, prosperity among the mass of the population. . Fluctuations in the incomes or affluent or even well-to-do folk make little difference to the demand for coins, since the great bulk of the sums involved in their financial transactions passes in the form of notes, cheques, and other mediums of exchange. The fortunate man whose income rises from £4,000 to £5,000 a year will hardly need to receive or to spend any more halfcrowns or pennies. It is for the trouser-pockets of the millions not so well off, the purses in the handbags of shopping housewives, the myriad cash transaction&aof the multitude that they are required. The Mint manufactures and issues different denominations of coins according to the demands of the Bank of England for silver currency and of the joint stock banks in the case of copper. These demands faithfully reflect the general public need. During the war and the boom which followed a large coinage was called for, which left us when the depression came with all, or more than all, the coppers we could use. So from January, 1923 to D.ecemher, 1926, no pennies at all were made at the Mint.

INFLUENCE OF METERS. Before the war about a quarter of a million pounds’ worth of new pennies a year sufficed, and a little earlier the amount was less than £IOO,OOO. The great increase in the number of gas meters and penny-in-the-slot type of machines accounted for a large part of the rise, but this has had less effect on the fluctuations since. . We speak of copper coins, following popular usage, but, of course, strictly 7 we ought to refer to them as bronze, as the officials do. The revolutionary year in the modern history of British coins of the lowest values was 1860, when a bronze alloy—9s parts of copper, 4 of tin, 1 of zinc—was substituted for copper, and moreover the weight was reduced by one-half. It is astonishing to learn that during 60 years’ coinage of bronze up to 1920, we needed less than nine million pounds’ worth, while during the three years, 1919, 1920, 1921, pennies to the value of a million and a-half were issued. No wonder we were overstocked when the post-war boom gave place to the depression. Though prices and values have changed so much since the present Sovereign’s head began to be stamped thereon, a penny remains for innumerable purposes tho standard unit. “ Sturdy, simple, brown-coated, ’ it was written, “ the penny is a trusty servant, easily summoned when he is wanted, and ready to do an infinite number of small tasks without making fuss or trouble.” Now it has but a fraction of the purchasing power of the first copper penny, issued in 1797, after ages of silver pennies, and the metal in it is worth but a fraction of _ the value inscribed upon it; yet it is still a goodly coin and always welcome, especially when new, sharp cut, and almost golden in colour. LAST OF SILVER PENNIES. It is by far the oldest of our current coins. For five hundred years the only English coin was a penny, a silver one, first minted in the eighth century by Offa, King of Mercia. Under Saxon and Dane and Norman this silver penny was the sole English coin. Not until Edward I.’s reign were halfpennies and farthings made, and it was previously customary to cut the penny, deeply indented for the purpose, into halves and quarters for use in trade. Silver pennies were last minted for general circulation in the days of Charles 11., but did not pass out of ordinary use until about 1724. Historic continuity has been maintained right up to the present time by the annual appearance of the Maundy moneys—silver fourpences, threepences, twopences, and pennies—minted specially to be bestowed as alms from the King at Westminster Abbey on Maundy Thursday. In Charles ll.’s reign, too, copper coins were first minted—halfpennies, but not pennies. Prom 1662 to 1797 no pennies at all were issued, and then came huge copper ones, weighing about an ounce, to clink in the stout pockets of the subjects of George 111. There were twopenny pieces twice as heavy as well, weighing as much as six pennies and a halfpenny nowadays, but these were discontinued as too cumbersome. The weight of the penny was later reduced to two-thirds of an ounce, but the complete transformation came in 1860 \vith the substitution of bronze and 48 instead of 24 pennies to the pound weight. These bronze coins of the ’sixties had immeasurable advantages over their predecessors. The design was graceful and dignified, the colour pleasing, the resistance to wear and tear was proved by the number of generations the coins remained in circulation. They were common up to the time a Royal proclamation withdrew this “uncrowned Queen Victoria stampage ” some 11 years ago. The penny was of convenient size and weight, easily distinguishable and portable, and these virtues substantially contributed to its establishment as the price of many popular commodities, from buns to newspapers, from whistles to tram rides. Yet the censorious expressed detestation of the new money. Ruskin, in ‘Fors Clavigera,’ described the devices on tho penny with scornful particularity. “ Not that, except under protest, I call such a thing as that a Penny!” Farthings, when he was a boy, were as big, and twopence filled a waistcoat pocket. Who was the lady “ sitting apparently on tho edge of a dish cover ?” And so on. He would have all coins of absolute pure gold and silver, and of those metals only. The dear, unpractical idealist was not legislating for a world he knew, still less for a world that was to develop after him.