January 16, 2024

Part 2
Thirteen Pence to the Shilling
Queen Victoria Copper Issues

1844_cat
From the Shield on an 1851 One Thirteenth of a Shilling

     These unusual denominations can be traced to back to the act of September 18, 1834. This act decreed that English money would be the sole legal tender in Jersey.  At that time, 26 French livres were equal to one English pound.  With 20 shillings to the pound and 20 sous to the livre, one shilling was worth 26 sous.  Thus the Jersey penny or pièce de deux sous became 1/13th of a shilling, the Jersey half penny or sou 1/26th of a shilling, and the farthing or pièce de deux liards 1/52nd of a shilling.1  One additional thing of interest about this act was that no one was obliged to receive in payment more than the value of one shilling in copper money. 

missing image
Jersey Commercial Bank
unissued One Pound or 26 Livres, 183-


For more information see the banknote page.
      These coins were ordered on July 13, 1840, sanctioned on September 11, 1840, and struck at the Royal Mint in 1841.  William Wyon engraved the dies.  The obverse has a dexter bust of Queen Victoria, with hair banded, as in the English coinage of that period, with the legend “VICTORIA: D: G: BRITANNIAR: REGINA F:D:” and the date.  The legend in English is “Victoria, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith.”  The reverse has an ornamented shield of the arms of Jersey (gules and three gold colored lions passant gardent) with the legend “STATES OF JERSEY” around the upper half, while “1/52 OF A SHILLING”, “1/26 OF A SHILLING”, or “1/13 OF A SHILLING” around the lower half.  The Jersey Government plied this design to the Royal Mint.2  Then on November 12, 1841, the new coins arrived in Jersey aboard the steamship Transit.3  During their twenty-five year life span, coins were issued only once for the one farthing and five times for both the half penny and penny.  Also, proof only issues were struck in 1861 for the farthing and in 1865 for the penny.  Due to the rise in copper prices, these heavy oversized copper coins were replaced in 1866 with smaller bronze coinage and then finally withdrawn from circulation in 1869 for recoinage.4

      During this period, many newspaper articles discussed the state of Jersey's coinage and bank notes. Many were written complaining about the lack of coins, the confusion between 12 and 13 pence, foreign coins, and the "Reign of Rags."

Things to note about this series:
  • Mintages for these coins are typically small.
  • There are various die varieties for most of these coins.
  • The initials of WW for William Wyon are on the truncation.
For a quick look at the mintage figures, visit the “Mintage Information” site.

missing image
From the Times of London, November 13, 1844

      Almost all of these coins have die cracks, repunched letters, various spacing in the dates and words, different fonts, and other items of interest. Thus for the numismatist there are many different varieties to discover. For example, notice the letters of REGINA found on an 1858 1/26th. They have been repunched.
missing image
      Here we have the date from two different examples of an 1851 1/13th.
missing image missing image
      Be sure to click on the camera icon camera image to review the die varieties or the letter icon  Letter image to see images using a digital microscope.

Posthumous medallic portrait of William Wyon by his son L. C. Wyon
1854
(click on image to enlarge)
missing image missing image
The name of William Wyon is well known among coin and medal collectors because of his prodigious output and artistic skill.
For Jersey, he designed these copper coins.


One Fifty-Second of a Shilling
1841 and 1861
(click on image to enlarge)
missing image missing image
    Year    J#    KM#   Mintage  Diameter     
    1841    57     1    116,480   21.90  missing image missing image missing image  Letter image striations image 
    1861    58        Proof Only  21.90  missing image striations image 
missing image
From the Times of London, November 22, 1841
Things to note:


One Twenty-Sixth of a Shilling
1841, 1844, 1851, 1858, and 1861
(click on image to enlarge)
missing image missing image
    Year    J#    KM#   Mintage  Diameter     
    1841    34     2    232,960   28.10  missing image example image camera image  Letter image striations image
    1844    35          232,960   28.20  missing image example image camera image  Letter image striations image mint image 
    1851    36          173,333   28.25  missing image example image camera image  Letter image striations image mint image 
    1858    37          173,333   28.15  missing image example image camera image  Letter image striations image mint image 
    1861    38          173,333   28.20  missing image example image camera image  Letter image striations image mint image  wow image 
missing image
From the Times of London, October 28, 1844
Things to note:
  • A variety of the 1858 issue has a die crack across the 6 on the reverse.
  • On finer examples, striations are visible on some coins for each year due to die clashing.
  • If you look closely, on most issues many letters are repunched.
  • Proofs exist for the 1841, 1858, and the 1861 issues.

missing image
The Royal Squadron entering St Aubin's Bay
by
Philip John Ouless
for the Queen's visit to Jersey in 1846



missing image
From the Times of London, October 28, 1844


One Thirteenth of a Shilling
1841, 1844, 1851, 1858, and 1861
(click on image to enlarge)
missing image missing image
    Year    J#    KM#   Mintage  Diameter     
    1841    3      3    116,480   34.15  missing image example image camera image  Letter image
    1844    4           145,600   34.10  missing image example image camera image  Letter image mint image   
    1851    5           173,333   34.15  missing image example image camera image  Letter image striations image mint image  
    1858    6           173,333   34.10  missing image example image camera image  Letter image striations image mint image  
    1861    7           173,333   34.15  missing image example image camera image  Letter image striations image mint image 
    1865    8         Proof Only  34.15  missing image example image  
missing image
From the Times of London, November 13, 1844
     The mintage figures of these copper coins can be a rather interesting subject for the numismatist.  The act of July 13, 1840 allowed the States to order two tons of copper pence, two tons of half pence, and a half ton of farthings for a nominal value of £1000.  For the 1844 coins, the States ordered two and a half tons of pence and two tons of half pence for a nominal value of £1000.  The States paid £583/13/9 of which £198/6/8 was for mint expenses, £367/17/6 was for copper, and £17/9/7 was for packing.  The original estimate was £598/6/8.5  For the 1851 coinage, the States ordered a nominal value of £1000.  Unlike the earlier issues, the Heaton Mint supplied the blanks for this issue.  The States paid £551/13/8.6  The States originally wanted a nominal value of £2,000 coinage for the 1858 issue per a request on December 15, 1857 by Philip de St. Croix, President of the Committee of the States of Jersey for the copper coinage.  This was to be divided with two-thirds being the 1/13th of a shilling, and the remaining one-third the 1/26th of a shilling.  Because the price of copper rose, on February 16, 1858 the amount was halved and the rest issued in 1861.7  Finally, the 1861 issue cost the States £591/2/11 of which £517/5/3 was for copper blanks purchased for coinage from Ralph Heaton and Sons, £56/13/5 was coinage expenses and dies, and £17/4/3 was for packing.8 

      As with several other Jersey coins, there seems to be a difference of opinion on the correct mintage figures for the Jersey 1844 penny.  In his book, The Coins of the British Commonwealth of Nations Part 1, European Territories, Major F. Pridmore states that the mintage of the 1844 Jersey one thirteenth of a shilling as 27,040.  The 1841 had 116,480 coins minted, while the other issues each had a mintage of 173,333.  This would make the 1844 the key of the series.  Krause and other leading publications have repeated these numbers.  However, according to Royal Mint documents, the correct mintage figure is 145,600. 

Things to note:
missing image
From the Times of London, November 22, 1841



The 1865 Proof Coin and The Great International Exhibition in Sydney, Australia of 1879-1880
missing Sydney Exhibition image
It is interesting to note that there were restrikes of several Jersey proof coins minted in 1879 for the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879-1880. The noted numismatist, Howard Hodgson writes in the 2023 British Numismatic Journal10:
The coins sent out for the Exhibition by the Royal Mint in London were all proofs and there were two of each piece. They included ‘type’ specimens of Imperial coinage of Queen Victoria, including two 'Una and the Lion' £5 pieces of 1839. There were also representative sets of colonial cons, comprising specimens from Canada (plus its preconfederation provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island), Cyprus, Hong Kong, the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Jamaica, Jersey, Mauritius, the Straits Settlements and certain other colonies. …

In all there were 275 pieces, comprising two specimens each of 90 different coins and 47 different medals…

The official catalogue of the New South Wales Court states that the Sydney Branch exhibited a 'Collection of proof specimens of British and Colonial Coins, War and other Medals, struck at the Royal Mint during the present Century.' ....

The cons and medals produced by London for the Branch to display at the Exhibition are almost a topic unto themselves. As the coins were all prepared in 1879 they include a significant number of restrikes of earlier, and in some cases no longer current, pieces. ....

The colonial coins include oddities such as Canadian twenty-cent pieces of 1871; Jersey copper pennies of 1865; Jersey bronze pennies, half pennies and farthings of 1877 without mintmark; and in respect of Gibraltar, two quart and one quart coins of 1861 and half-quart specimens, which lack a date altogether.

missing image
missing image
This medal commemorates the 1846 visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

From Appendix B of “The Channel Islands” by Paul Naftel 1862
missing image

Appendix B continued
missing image

Appendix B continued
missing image

missing image
Arrival of Her Majesty at Mount Orgueil by Philip John Ouless
for the Queen's visit to Jersey in 1846
missing image
The Obverse of the 1841 One Fifty-Second of a Shilling
missing image
The Reverse of the 1841 One Fifty-Second of a Shilling
missing image
The Obverse of the 1861 One Twenty-Sixth of a Shilling
missing image
The Reverse of the 1861 One Twenty-Sixth of a Shilling
missing image
The Obverse of the 1841 One Thirteenth of a Shilling
missing image
The Reverse of the 1841 One Thirteenth of a Shilling
States banknote
A States Five Pounds Banknote of 1840
JerseyBank_1843 banknote
One Pound Banknote Issued by the Jersey Bank in 1843

the money table
From “The Gossiping Guide to Jersey” by J. Bertrand Payne, 1865.
     Before leaving this section, a numismatist might find the following from The Gossiping Guide to Jersey by J. Bertrand Payne9 of 1865 of interest:
     “The coinage and banking operations of Jersey offer some salient points to the curious.  At the present, Bank of England notes, English and French gold and silver, and a local copper money form the staple currency.  Formerly, French silver and copper, among the former of which the six-livre piece was prominent, were almost the only medium of exchange, and these coins, at the best of times, were very scarce.  To supply this deficiency, early in this century the States of Jersey had three- shilling and eighteen-penny pieces, of local value, coined at the Royal Mint, but these were withdrawn in 1834.  The insular currency was framed on the old French system—the sol or sou  being a halfpenny, twenty sols one livre, and twenty-four livres one Louis d'or. In the Extentes, or Royal Rent Rolls, as well as in private account books of the olden time, reference is made to deniers  and liards—one the twenty-fourth, the other the quarter of a sol.  In the Guernsey special coinage the latter exists, and is almost as great a curiosity in its way as the new French centime; the former never was a coin, but merely a hair-splitting instrument of computation.  Monnoie d'ordre appears in the publication of some fines in the last century.  This had the effect of raising the livre fifty per cent., by means of an order in Council, dated 1729, and was iniquitously procured by certain local capitalists to depreciate the value of real property.  The term is used in contradistinction to the livre tournois, or cours de France.  Before 1841, the numismatist whose ambition did not rise higher than copper would have made hay triumphantly in Jersey, for it seemed that the Island was the universal refuge for all the “browns” of the universe.  Imported wholesale, as a profitable speculation, by the native sailors from every country in the world, the Jersey people were so cosmopolitan in their ideas of what constituted a penny or a halfpenny, that flat discs of metal, innocent of die, passed freely in the ruck of this motley circulation.  However, in the year mentioned, the Crown waived its prerogative, and permitted the States to issue its own pence, halfpence, and farthings.  These, in accordance with the local system of calculation, were struck at the rate of thirteen pence to the English shilling, being a premium of 8 1/3 per cent, in favour of the latter. With the additional advantage of the Jersey pound avoirdupois, being 17 ½ ounces, money went far, but although the latter still remains as a boon to the buyer, almost all articles of necessity and luxury are bought and sold at English rates, or at so much “British!” as the Jersey Rothschildren say. 

     From money itself, one naturally passes on to the trading in it, so we come smoothly to the topic of banks.  These are not of any old standing here, for before the age of steam, local financial transactions were of a very primitive and “penny-farthing” character.  Today there are a half dozen respectable ones in St. Helier, corresponding with English and foreign houses, and apparently doing well.  Besides these, there are other more nondescript banks, the functions of which seem limited to the issue of one-pound notes, and which, on any inquiries made touching payment, are found to have no “local habitation,” only “a name.”  It speaks well for the honesty or simplicity of “the dwellers within this isle,” that no gigantic abuse has ever grown out of the dangerous facility that exists for issuing these notes.  We say gigantic, because many a humble rogue, with more brains than means, has “gone in and won” at this exciting game.  Still no one has reaped, and we hope never will, the harvest a Paul, a Strachan, a Redpath, or a Durdin would have sickled, with such advantages before them where to choose.  Before 1813, the tag-rag and bob-tail, anybody and everybody, issued paper money—coin being very scarce—for paltry sums descending even to a shilling!  Then, and not before it was wanted, a law fixed the minimum of these “kites” at one pound, Jersey or British, according to taste.  Since this, parish officers, merchants, directors of dissenting chapels, tradesmen, and adventurers, have disseminated their autographs at this price, usque ad nauseam.  As no prohibitory law on the subject exists, anyone who can afford to get a plate engraved can issue notes, provided he can procure a clientele among which to pass them, and can thus combine banking, trading, and, de facto, unlimited bill-drawing, which would, in the opinion of many, render Jersey a real Commercial Utopia.” 


missing image
Lieutenant-Colonel Dixon R E presenting the Visitor's book to Her Majesty
by Philip John Ouless for the Queen's visit to Jersey in 1846

missing image
From “The Gossiping Guide to Jersey”
by J. Bertrand Payne, 1865.

missing image
From “The History of Guernsey; with Occasional Notices of Jersey, Alderney, and Sark, and biographical Sketches” by Johathan Duncan, London 1841.



From Appendix B of “The Channel Islands” by Paul Naftel 1862 append b part 1
append b part 2
append b part 3
1846_victoria_albert
1846_victoria_albert
This medal commemorates the 1846 visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

An 1859 newspaper article describing the visit.

missing image
Arrival of Her Majesty at Mount Orgueil by Philip John Ouless
for the Queen's visit to Jersey in 1846


Cork Constitution (Cork, Republic of Ireland) - Monday 15 December 1862
The following have been sent to us as extracts from the letter of friend:
Jersey Habits, &c.
Dear C. - Some little time ago you asked me to describe Jersey and its inhabitants. Well, as far as Jersey goes, if you look in the Encyclopedia or any book of that sort you will get much better account of it than I can give. However, I will able to tell you something about the manners, &c., there. Women decidedly predominate, there being at least ten women to one man, and a natural consequence there is an immense deal scandal there. A few days ago I was at a party; the hostess had a very pretty daughter, and I had rather a jolly night. The next day I went to pay my respects, and immediately it was rumored that I was going to be married to her. Rather pleasant that. They give thirteen pence for a shilling here, and to new comer that is rather puzzling. I was witness of very amusing incident the other day. A Paddie came into the of a hotel and asked for a noggin of whiskey. It was handed him by a very pretty girl, and he put down a shilling. To his great astonishment and delight twelve pence was handed in change. He looked at it and the girl, and asked if that was right. The girl said perfectly so, and he turned to a comrade and said "Arrah, jewel, sure this is beautiful place - they give whiskey for nothing;" and went away in great delight. He was very much astonished, however, when he heard that they gave thirteen pence for shilling, and that they were not so liberal in other matters.
missing image
From “The History of Guernsey; with Occasional Notices of Jersey, Alderney, and Sark, and biographical Sketches” by Johathan Duncan, London 1841.
missing image
A proof/specimen banknote of the Jersey Banking Company dated 1 January 1864.

On 11 January 1886, a notice appeared above the door of the Jersey Banking Company:
"Unforeseen circumstances have compelled the bank to suspend payment".


1.  A. L. T. McCammon, Currencies of the Anglo-Norman Isles (London:  Spink & Son Ltd., 1984), pp. 155 and 156.

2.  Fred Pridmore, The Coins of The British Commonwealth of Nations, Part 1:  European Territories (London:  Robert Stockwell Ltd., 1960), p. 46.

3.  Lobel, Davidson, Hailstone, and Calligas, Coincraft's Standard Catalogue of the Coins of Scotland, Ireland, Channel Islands & Isle of Man (London:  Polestar Wheatons Ltd., 1999), p. 315.

4.  Lieutenant Colonel B. Lowsley, The Coinages of the Channel Islands (London:  Victoria Printing Works, 1897), p. 31.

5.  MINT 1/39, Entries include: Minutes and memoranda of the Master, 1843 May - 1845 August; Orders of the Privy Council, 1844 January and 1845 April; Representations, reports etc. submitted to the Treasury, 1843 April - 1845 December; Treasury authorities and directions, 1843 April - 1845 December, pp. 283, 302, 303, 304, 306, 307, 352, 353, 359, and 360. Mint Papers, The Public Record Office, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UK.  See:  Société Jersiaise Numismatic Section, Royal Mint Documents 1851 - 1861. Occasional Papers No. 7.

6.  MINT 12/1, Letters and papers concerning the execution of copper coinages for the States of Jersey. 1851 September - 1852 March; 1857 December; Mint Papers, The Public Record Office, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UK.  See:  Société Jersiaise Numismatic Section, Royal Mint Documents 1851-1857. Occasional Papers No. 8.

7.  MINT 1/42, Entries include: Orders of the Master, 1852 April - 1858 May; Proclamation, 1852 April; Representations, reports etc. submitted to the Treasury, 1852 January - 1858 May; Treasury authorities and directions, 1851 December - 1858 May, pp. 699, 700, 710, 711, and 712. Mint Papers, The Public Record Office, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UK.  See:  Société Jersiaise Numismatic Section, Royal Mint Documents 1851 - 1861. Occasional Papers No. 9.

8.  MINT 1/44, Entries include: Order of the Privy Council, 1861 June; Orders of the Master, 1861 January - 1864 June; Representations, reports etc. submitted to the Treasury, 1861 January - 1864 December; Treasury authorities and directions, 1861 January - 1864 December, pp. 112, 113, 150, 151, 153, 157, 158, 159, 267, 268, and 273.  See:  Société Jersiaise Numismatic Section, Royal Mint Documents 1851-1861. Occasional Papers No. 9.

9.  J. Bertrand Payne, The Gossiping Guide to Jersey (London, 1865), pp, 197-200.

10.  Howard Hodgson, British Numismatic Journal Volume 93, A.M. Le Souëf and the Dispersal of the Sydney Mint Collection in 1926-27, (2023), pp. 214.



Continue to the next 13 Pence section
or goto

home, tokens, 1/12th of a shilling, decimal, one pound, commemoratives, or gold coins