Double trouble: "Barmaid's Grief" & "victor1a"

Weiss

Bought this in a group of bullion from my dealer just now. Had never heard of a double florin until today. It was apparently a short lived (4 year) series, first real attempt at decimalization. Named "Barmaid's Grief" for its similarity in size, weight, and design (and lack of denomination!) to a crown, but valued at 25% less, and for which it could easily be confused in the bustle and poor lighting of a pub.

This one features a somewhat rare inverted Arabic "1" instead of an "I" in Victor1a, apparently the result of a broken punch...

Double Florin on Wiki

SaorAlba

It wasn't the first attempt at decimalisation - back in the 1840s the Florins were issued with the text "One Tenth of a Pound". Florins always were a tenth of a pound, and the latter ones circulated up until 1991 when Britain demonetized them and the large 10p coins issued until then.

Weiss

Didn't say it was the first.

Again, from the Wikipedia article I posted:

"The coin was introduced as part of a short-lived attempt at decimalization of the currency, after an earlier attempt had spawned the florin."

lordmarcovan

I hadn't heard the "barmaid's grief" phrase before. Interesting. So I guess this coin fell victim to some of the same problems which bedeviled the SBA dollar here in the States.

I picked up a gorgeous MS example (1888, I think) the last time I went to a show (that's been almost six years ago now). It had incredibly nice sea green toning with hints of pink.

I wish I'd gotten it TrueViewed. Ended up slabbing it at ANACS (where it went MS63, as I recall). I never got satisfactory photos of it.

PS- you got that in a bullion lot? Pretty nice pickup, if you got it around melt, I'd say.

STLNATS

So I guess this coin fell victim to some of the same problems which bedeviled the SBA dollar here in the States.

Almost identical issue as the US 20 cent piece which caused a fair amount of confusion with the slightly larger quarter (and interestingly a fifth of a dollar vs a fifth of a pound). This is a neat, short series with varieties and fairly inexpensive as I recall. Nice catch!

Swampboy

Here's my double florin with Roman one.

I know nothing about barmaids.

Weiss

That's a stunner, Swampboy!

Burks

Thank you for the educational post!

I never knew that nickname. I've got a couple double florins but they are basically worth melt or less (REALLY worn). Now I'll have to go see if I have the Arabic or Roman I. Never bothered to look.