Crown Coins

Crowns are very popular coins amongst coin collectors, probably due to their large size and the fact that the crown was often minted as commemorative pieces after their use as currency began to decline in the nineteenth century.

Most people have seen commemorative crown coins struck to mark events in the life of our current queen Elizabeth II, such as the Silver Jubilee in 1977 and the wedding of her son, Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. Though these coins were technically 25 pence pieces and not the five shilling coins they replaced, we still carried on the affectionate name 'crown' to describe this group of large commemorative collectable coins. After 1981 the 25 pence crown was replaced by a higher denomonation five pounds coin due to the expense involved in producing such a large coin with low denomonation.

The most famous design and probably the most recognizable image for the reverse of a crown is the St. George and Dragon design by Benedetto Pistrucci created during the reign of King George III. Pistrucci was a prolific coin engraver and medallist who worked for the Royal Mint. The iconic St. George image has been used frequently on coinage right up to the present day.

The aim of this website is to catalogue as many types of crown coin as possible. If you are able to contribute in any way then please email us. Please help us fill in the missing years or if you can write an article concerning crowns then please send us that too.