This is one of the pattern pieces struck at the Royal Mint during the great recoinage of 1817 — one of the most consequential monetary reforms in British history, driven by decades of debased and counterfeit silver coinage that had rendered the circulating currency nearly dysfunctional. The recoinage was overseen by the new steam-powered machinery of Boulton and Watt, installed at Tower Hill, and Benedetto Pistrucci had only recently arrived in London when the mint was exploring designs for the new coinage.
A crown struck in 22-carat gold at nearly 49 grams was never intended for circulation — the economics were impossible. ESC 230 places it firmly among trial and presentation strikings from that reform period.
This is one of the pattern pieces struck at the Royal Mint during the great recoinage of 1817 — one of the most consequential monetary reforms in British history, driven by decades of debased and counterfeit silver coinage that had rendered the circulating currency nearly dysfunctional. The recoinage was overseen by the new steam-powered machinery of Boulton and Watt, installed at Tower Hill, and Benedetto Pistrucci had only recently arrived in London when the mint was exploring designs for the new coinage.
A crown struck in 22-carat gold at nearly 49 grams was never intended for circulation — the economics were impossible. ESC 230 places it firmly among trial and presentation strikings from that reform period.