labmom Posted June 25, 2005 Report Share Posted June 25, 2005 I have a coin that looks exactly like the picture in my 2002 Krause. It appears to be a 25 New Pence coin commemorating the Silver Jubilee of Reign. The coin measures 39 mm in diameter and 3 mm thick. It has a reeded edge. Is this big thing really a 25 New Pence commemorative? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ætheling Posted June 25, 2005 Report Share Posted June 25, 2005 If it's the same size as a Churchill crown (or any other British crown be it 1951, 1953 or whatever) and it says 25p on it no where, then yes it's very likely it's a 25p coin. As you can well imagine they don't circulate. Infact most Brits don't even know they have a 25p coin. Why is it that big you ask? Because 1 shilling is 5 new pence, and thus 5 shillings is 25 new pence. The denomination altered to decimal, the size like the 10p (florin) and 5p (shilling) coins remained unchanged. Another little British peculiarity that makes no sense to anyone with common sense, but what did you expect? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlavicScott Posted June 25, 2005 Report Share Posted June 25, 2005 Another little British peculiarity that makes no sense to anyone with common sense, but what did you expect? What makes no sense is that in 1981, a crown (and we are talking a crown sized coin, since the crown valued coins stopped long before then) had a face value of 25p. Yet a few years later, when the next crown was issued in 1990, it had a face value of £5. Some crazy inflation going on over there, or what?!?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ætheling Posted June 25, 2005 Report Share Posted June 25, 2005 What makes no sense is that in 1981, a crown (and we are talking a crown sized coin, since the crown valued coins stopped long before then) had a face value of 25p. Yet a few years later, when the next crown was issued in 1990, it had a face value of £5. Some crazy inflation going on over there, or what?!?! I can field that one. The mint wanted to produce commemoratives, but as you can imagine producing massive 25p coins and issuing them at banks for 25p was not entirely profit friendly. Thus the mint axed the old 25p crowns (which were proper crowns and they are Kuhli). In their place they introduced a totally new coin, same alloy, same size, this was the new decimal £5 coin. Bearing in mind they had issued gold pre-decimal £5 coins in the past which were nearly the same size. (Actually pre-decimal pounds and decimal pounds are exactly the same, no change in value). What confused things were the mint marketed these new £5 coins as 'crown sized coins', and thus people just started calling them crowns for short, because people are generally lazy. That's why it gets so confusing. Imagine being a UK shop keeper that is being harrased by a customer who slaps a 1977 25p coin down and demands it's a £5 coin... (it does happen, albeit rarely). The shop keepers refuse to take them, the bank refuse to take either the 25p or the £5 coins and thus many of the 25p coins get skimmed across the street by the angry person that couldn't get shut of it at the local petrol station. I know cos the petrol station employee went outside and picked it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geordie582 Posted June 25, 2005 Report Share Posted June 25, 2005 Never had a circulated 25p but I received a £5 coin in change at Tesco! As it wasn't in too good a condition, I spent it next visit to the store! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ætheling Posted June 25, 2005 Report Share Posted June 25, 2005 Wow a store that takes them! The Post Office would not even take my £5 coin back, unless i was using it as part of a purchase. Even then they took some convincing, funny that cos they sold me the thing in the first place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccg Posted June 26, 2005 Report Share Posted June 26, 2005 Wow a store that takes them! The Post Office would not even take my £5 coin back, unless i was using it as part of a purchase. Even then they took some convincing, funny that cos they sold me the thing in the first place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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