hallmark, the result of a royal warrant issued by Queen Anne so as to ‘Continue to Posterity the Remembrance of that Glorious Action’ at Vigo Bay.
Hearts and Minds
In the battle for hearts and minds during a time of conflict prior to national media, coins offered a means to spread propaganda messages. During the English Civil War, the Royalist mint in Oxford produced elaborate gold triple unite coins which suggests that Charles I was keen to promote the ongoing prestige of his kingship. They were probably made from melted down gold chains of office and jewellery. Images of these impressive coins appeared in a Royalist pamphlet, named A Warning Piece, adding further credence to the theory that they were issued as much for public relations as currency.
Charles I certainly used his coinage to increase his image as a defender of the people and the faith. He is portrayed on horseback, trampling military arms underfoot. Underscoring the imagery, the coins issued in his name are inscribed with a shortened version of the ‘Declaration’ that he made in Wellington in September 1642, promising to uphold the Protestant religion, the Laws of England and the Liberty of Parliament. This statement was slightly at odds with the promises he had made other Catholic foreign monarchs such Louis XIII of France who wanted the religious restrictions of Britain relaxed.
Security and Safekeeping
Facing the threat of invasion, governments must safeguard their supplies of bullion, shipping them overseas for safekeeping if necessary.
During the Second World War extraordinary efforts were expended on arranging for gold and currency reserves from several European countries to be shipped, in the strictest secrecy, across the Atlantic. By keeping gold from falling into enemy hands the Allies hoped to continue to fund the war even in the event of an invasion. Known as Operation Fish, in the first six months of the war Britain transported more than 100 tonnes of gold to Canada for safekeeping.
In the event of an opposing army coming over the horizon, individual stores of wealth were also vulnerable. There were no high street banks where coins could be deposited for safekeeping. From classical times to the twenty-first century, people across the entire spectrum of society have stored valuables in hoards to be retrieved when peace returns.
The diarist Samuel Pepys notes one such incident. On 13 June 1667, fearing imminent invasion as Dutch ships sailed up the Medway, he had his wife and father bury about £1,300 in gold coins at his country house in Brampton, Cambridgeshire. Some days later he fell out with his wife on account of how badly she had hidden them in the garden. However, it wasn’t until 10 October that he set about digging them up.
This wasn’t the first time Pepys resorted to these measures. The previous year he buried a hoard including wine and parmesan cheese as well as gold in his garden in London as the Great Fire advanced.
On the March
Financing campaigns overseas impacted coin production in different ways. The Peninsular War (1808–14) between Bourbon Spain and Portugal, assisted by Britain, and the occupying forces of the First French Empire was a catalyst for the return of the large-scale minting of gold coins in Britain. Dated 1813, these coins came to be known as the military guinea because they were shipped to the Duke of Wellington for use in the Iberian Peninsula. These were the last guineas to be struck and about 360,000 were produced in total.
On occasion, war necessitated the production of coins of other states. In 1815, The Royal Mint made French Louis d’Or twenty-franc gold coins to supply to British troops across the channel. The government stressed they were official, claiming approval by the exiled Louis XVIII, but French authorities saw things differently, insinuating they had not been made to the correct standard.
Maria Theresa (1740–80) was the only female ruler of the Hapsburg dominions. During her reign the Austrian Mint started striking a popular trade coin: the silver thaler. Like The Sovereign in the Middle East, the si