What is a Crown?

skingspan

I have been wondering lately if there is a standard definition for a "Crown". I think the term came from the classic large british coins of the 1800s and 1900s. I sometimes see US Silver Dollars and Thalers referred to as Crowns. When browsing through dealer websites I sometimes see coins of different sizes and weights referred to as Crowns. Is the a minimim size and weight that a coins has to be to qualify as a crown?

bidask

generally a silver, silver dollar sized coin...

Sapyx

I don't think there's a strict minimum entry requirement to qualify for the term "crown". Personally, anything that fits comfortably in a crown-sized 2x2 is classifiable as a "crown". If it doesn't fit into a 2x2 at all, it's a "maxi-crown".

harasha

My response would be that a crown is the largest white metal (including silver, of course) coin of a country that either circulates or significantly resembles a circulating coin. This could exclude oversized coins (maxi-crown sounds like a good term) and other sorts of non-circulating legal tender (NCLT).
It would include many types of commemorative issues.

covers

Good question really for my interests - I am currently working on a little project that requires identifying the "crown" coin of each stamp issuing entity in the 1840 to 1860 era (web display here. I want to compare the cost of mailing a letter, in terms of absolute silver weight, in each of the various countries. To standardize things, I am using the cost of single-weight domestic letter and the crown coin.

My problem has been that many stamp-issuing entities had no crown coin, or were beginning to use debased coins by the 1850's. Was very surprised that so many entities just did not have crown coins of their own. Gold coins signified sovernety better than silver coins it appears in that decade.

A sample page:

ProofArtworkonCircs

I thought the old British crown pieces were 5 shillings of 12 pence each or 60 pence total.

ProofArtworkonCircs

How do we classify German coins after 1871. The 5 mark coin was silver dollar size but 3 mark and 6 mark coins also circulated (the old thaler and double thaler coins.) Eventually a 3 mark coin was minted (1909, I think; they were running out of old thalers).

covers

PAC - oops - stupid me ... have to fix that page.

shirohniichan

<< <i>Good question really for my interests - I am currently working on a little project that requires identifying the "crown" coin of each stamp issuing entity in the 1840 to 1860 era (web display here. I want to compare the cost of mailing a letter, in terms of absolute silver weight, in each of the various countries. To standardize things, I am using the cost of single-weight domestic letter and the crown coin. >>



Cool project.

At one time I collected crowns of 1875 to go along with an 1875 trade dollar I had. I think I ended up with 12 coins total (I didn't get one of each of the German States-- I think I only had Bayern and two others). The 1875 Japanese yen was so expensive I bought a counterfeit to plug a hole in the display (it was hanging on the wall of my livingroom, so I didn't think it wise to keep anything really valuable in plain view).

covers

shiro - try finding crowns in nice condition from 1850's .....

lordmarcovan

<< <i>What is a Crown? >>

It's a cardboard hatlike thing you put on your head when you're at Burger King.

(Hey, I've been away for about ten weeks, so I figured my return post should be wise and enlightening.)

Daltonista

Hey, Rob!
Welcome back.
You've been missed.
(Noticed?)
Hope all's well...

covers

PAC - Thanks again for correction - I remounted the page and corrected the linked image.

satootoko

<< <i>

<< <i>What is a Crown? >>

It's a cardboard hatlike thing you put on your head when you're at Burger King. >>

Someone was asking about you recently, but if that's the kind of posts you're going to make, I'm not sure we need you back.

home anyway.

Blackborder

A silver coin of .500 fine or better that must:

1. Be minted for circulation
2. Between 36mm and 42mm
3. Weigh between 22g and 32g
4. Contain between .5oz and 1oz pure silver.

Weiss

To me a crown was always just the single biggest circulating silver coin issued by a country at any given time.

ProofArtworkonCircs

<<To me a crown was always just the single biggest circulating silver coin issued by a country at any given time>>

I like that definition, but that makes the 1968 50% silver 25 cent piece of Canada the crown for that year.

Come to think of it Newfoundland would have the 10 cent piece as the crown for 1938, 1940-1947.


edited to add Newfoundland.

Weiss

Yeah, I don't really think of anything past WWII as a crown. That's even a stretch. Call it Americentric, and end the era with the 1935 Peace dollar.

Gazza

This may help

The crown

newbiecollector

This is a Crown.

Blame me for the way it looks..........my photo is not the greatest

Boom

1) Formal headdress worn by Royalty

2) The very best Blended Whiskey in the world.

3) One's head.

4) British coinage

5) All of the above.