question for the British coin guys........

Doogy

in looking at the population reports from NGC, I notice the 1821 Crowns have three different categories: the one that just says 'G.Britain' beside it, 'Secundo', and 'Tertio'. can someone explain the difference between these three? thanks for any help!


Doug

Sapyx

British crowns of this period have the regnal year of the monarch written in Latin around the rim of the coin. If someone became the monarch partway through the year, coins of that year can be found with two regnal dates.

Doogy

thanks! so there is no real difference in the design of the coin (i.e. they all have King George IIII on the obverse, and St. George/Dragon on the reverse; just the incriptions are different? thanks again!

Doug

lordmarcovan

<< <i>so there is no real difference in the design of the coin (i.e. they all have King George IIII on the obverse, and St. George/Dragon on the reverse; just the incriptions are different? >>

That's correct. If I remember it right, they will say "DECUS ET TUTAMEN ANNO REGNI ___" or something like that on there. "Decus Et Tutamen" means "An Ornament and a Safeguard" and is a holdover from the early days when that was put on coin edges to discourage clipping of the silver. "Anno Regni" means "year of reign", of course, and would be followed by the year of that monarch's reign.

Or so I remember. I don't think I've had any George IV crowns but the final George III crowns were like this ("Anno Regni LX" for his 60th year, for example).