1 Crown - Charles II 1st bust

The 1662 crown marks England's first milled silver coinage of the Restoration, produced at the Tower Mint under the direction of Pierre Blondeau, the French engineer whose edge-lettering machinery had been rejected by the Commonwealth mint a decade earlier. Charles II personally championed Blondeau's methods to suppress the clipping epidemic that had plagued hammered coinage for generations. The first bust variety was replaced within the same year — surviving examples from this initial punch are considerably scarcer than the later issues of the same date.