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The evolution of the UK's venerable currency

Old enough to remember the White Fiver, £1 note or sixpence and halfpenny coins? The most ancient currency still in use, pound sterling has changed beyond all recognition since its creation in the eighth century. We chart its evolution to the present day, from solid-silver coinage to polymer notes.
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Roman inspiration

The pound's history dates way back to 755 with the Carolingian Reform. King Pepin the Short, the ruler of the Frankish Empire, established a standardised European monetary system emulating the Roman system of libra, solidus and denarius (pounds, shillings and pence). A pound consisted of 240 pennies or 20 shillings, equivalent to 1lb of silver.
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Creation of the pound

The Carolingian System was adopted throughout Europe and taken up by King Offa of Mercia, who introduced the first silver penny in 775. The Mercian penny, as it has been dubbed, weighed in at 22.5 troy grains of fine silver or 1.5 kilos, making for quite a hefty coin, and the pound contained 5,400 troy grains or 360 kilos. It was equivalent to 120 silver Arabic dirhams or 15 heads of cattle.
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First English coins

The production of coins exploded during the 8th and 9th centuries due to the Viking invasions. Large quantities of cash was needed to shore up defences and pay off the invaders. Æthelstan, the first King of unified England, had 30 mints in operation churning out money and established the pound as the national currency in 928 when he issued the Statute of Greatley.
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Sterling silver

In 1158, the penny changed from the purest form of the precious metal to hardier and longer-lasting 0.925 (92.5%) silver, which is known today as sterling silver. The silver was alloyed with copper to toughen it up. As commerce increased, merchants struggled with the low denomination money and resorted to using gold Arabic and Byzantine coins to pay for large transactions.
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First gold coin

To meet this demand, King Henry III authorised the minting of England's first gold coin in 1257. His gold penny was worth 20 silver pennies but was undervalued, and most of the coins that circulated were melted down. King Edward III had more luck with the gold noble, which entered circulation in 1344 and was widely used. It was worth six shillings and eight pence.
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Lower value coins

Nevertheless, silver rather than gold remained the legal basis of the currency for centuries. In 1279, King Edward I expanded England's coinage. The monarch launched the farthing, which was worth a quarter of a penny, as well as the groat, a larger denomination coin worth four pence. The halfpenny debuted in 1280.
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Gold crown

During the Tudor period, the definition of a pound changed and the silver content of the coins dropped. New coins introduced during this era include the threepence, sixpence, shilling (which was worth 12 pence), the half-crown and the five-shilling crown, which was originally minted in 22-carat 'crown' gold.
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First banknotes

The currency consisted entirely of coins until the late 17th century. The Bank of England was established in 1694 to raise cash for England's war with France and began to issue banknotes not long after. Customers exchanged their coinage for handwritten notes promising to pay the bearer the value of the note on demand.
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Pound Scots

England united with Scotland in 1707, creating Great Britain, and the pound sterling merged with Scotland's currency, the pound Scots. The process was overseen by Isaac Newton, who was Master of the Mint. Dating from the 12th century, the currency had less value than pound sterling. Notable coins included the romantically-named unicorn, which was worth 18 shillings, and the gold pistole, equal to 12 pounds Scots.
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First printed notes

The first partially-printed notes appeared in 1725 and standardised notes ranging from £20 to £1,000 launched in 1745. The Bank of England hadn't yet secured a monopoly on the printing of paper money, and notes were issued by a plethora of private banks. The first £10 note entered circulation in 1759, followed by the £5 in 1793, and £1 and £2 notes in 1797.
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UK currency

The Act of Union in 1801 created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Ireland's currency, the Irish pound or punt, continued to exist until 1826 when it was absorbed by sterling. The currency was resurrected in 1928 after the Irish Free State (later the Republic of Ireland) gained independence from the UK, and served as the nation's currency until the introduction of the euro in 2002.
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Great Recoinage of 1816

War with France in the early 19th century battered the UK's economy. Silver coins hadn't been minted for 50 years and those in circulation were undervalued and frequently clipped, ditto the gold. In 1816, the government withdrew the old silver and gold coins, replacing them with newly minted standard coinage of uniform size and content.
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Gold standard

That same year, the UK tied the value of the pound with a specific quantity of gold, the so-called gold standard, superseding the silver and bimetal standards that had been used for centuries. In 1817, the Bank of England introduced the gold sovereign, which was valued at 20 shillings and struck from 22-carat gold.
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Lowest value coin

The lowest ever domination of pound sterling, the copper quarter farthing was introduced in 1839 but its circulation was restricted to Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka). The coin equalled one-sixteenth of a penny and was worth around 2p in today's money. The half farthing, which debuted in 1842, was the lowest value coin to circulate in the UK. It was withdrawn in 1869.
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Bank of England monopoly

The Bank Charter Act of 1844 gave the Bank of England the sole right to print notes, and banned new private banks from doing so. The Bank of England finally secured its monopoly in 1921 when the last private English note was issued by Somerset's Fox, Fowler and Company. The last private Welsh note was printed in 1908 by the North and South Wales Bank, which closed that same year.
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Scottish and Northern Irish notes

Scotland and Northern Ireland were exempt from a number of provisions in the Act. Today, three Scottish and four Northern Irish retail banks have the right to issue pound sterling notes. Curiously, these notes are not technically legal tender in England and Wales, though they are not illegal, meaning they can be accepted as payment.
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First fully printed notes

In 1853, fully printed notes were introduced. Before that, banknotes had to include the name of the payee and signature of the cashier. At this time, the notes were printed on just one side and featured a depiction of Britannia seated on a throne. King George I appeared on early Bank of Scotland notes, but English notes didn't depict the monarch until much later.
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Global currency

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the pound was more or less the de facto global reserve currency, and tourists tended to carry pounds rather than US dollars as they were more readily accepted in foreign countries. The currency was used throughout the British Empire, and widely recognised elsewhere. The pound wasn't overtaken by the dollar until 1940 when sterling was pegged to the US currency.
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Gold standard dumped

The gold standard was dumped in 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War, reinstated in 1925 and finally abandoned forever in 1931. Since then, pound sterling has been a fiat currency – it is backed by the government rather than the precious metal. The US followed suit in 1934 and no currency these days is bound by the gold standard.
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Lowest value note

The lowest value English note, the 10 shilling or 10 bob note, was issued by the Treasury during the First World War. The Bank of England assumed responsibility for printing the note in 1928, along with the £1 note. They were the first coloured Bank of England notes – the 10 bob note was brown-red, while the £1 was a dark green – and the first to be printed on both sides. The iconic White Fiver turned blue in 1957.
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Big-money notes

At the time, monochrome or 'white' notes of £5, £20, £50, £100, £200, £300, £500 and even £1,000 were also in circulation, the oldest of which were introduced in 1745. The £100+ notes were ditched in 1945 to combat forgery – Nazi Germany had counterfeited them on an industrial scale – leaving the £50 as the highest denomination UK banknote.
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Queen's Elizabeth II's face

A profile of the reigning king or queen has featured on all UK coinage since the 17th century, but the monarch of the land didn't appear on Bank of England notes until 1960, when a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by master engraver Robert Austin debuted on the £1 note. The following year, a new 10 shilling note with a portrait of Her Majesty on the front was issued. 

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Famous figures

In 1970, William Shakespeare became the first non-royal to feature on a Bank of England note, bagging the back of the £20. The Duke of Wellington was next, appearing on the £5 note in 1975. Florence Nightingale was depicted on the £10 note from 1975 and Isaac Newton landed the back of the £1 note in 1978. Christopher Wren graced the £50 note from 1981.
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Decimalisation

The biggest change to the UK's currency for centuries came in 1971 with decimalisation. The confusing old currency based on 240 pence or 20 shillings in a pound, which was increasingly out of step with the rest of the world, was replaced by a simpler decimal system with 100 pence in a pound.
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Old money out

The look of the money changed too. The shilling and two shilling coins were replaced with 5p and 10p coins, the 10 bob note was swapped for the new heptagonal 50p coin, and new 1/2p, 1p and 2p coins replaced the old ones. The coins that bit the dust forever include the threepenny bit, half-crown and crown. The farthing had been ditched in the late 1950s.
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Maundy money

The exception to the rule is Maundy money, the small sterling silver coins distributed by the monarch every Maundy Thursday as part of an age-old tradition. This special form of pound sterling, which is actually legal tender, is still based on the old pre-decimal system and comes in denominations of 1p, 2p, 3p and 4p.
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Shrinking cash

As well as looking remarkably different, Bank of England coins and notes have shrunk over time – the 1797 copper twopences for instance measured a whopping 41mm a piece and were nicknamed cartwheels. The modern decimal 2p is just 25.9mm in diameter. Likewise, the £5 note has reduced in size from 211mm x 133mm in the 1950s to a compact 125mm x 65mm.

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New decimal coins

A new coin, the heptagonal 20p, which featured a crowned Tudor rose on the reverse, was minted in 1982. The humble 1/2p, which was worth a pittance by the 1980s, was withdrawn from circulation in 1984. Interestingly, the current 5p coin is only 1mm larger in diameter than the tiny decimal halfpenny.

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£1 coin introduced

In 1984, the £1 coin was introduced, spelling the end for the £1 note. The last note was printed that same year, but it wasn't until 1988 that all £1 notes were withdrawn from circulation. By this point, many of the notes were incredibly worn and tatty. A review of the UK's currency in the mid-1990s recommended the introduction of a £2 coin, and the coin entered circulation in 1998.

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Security updates

In 1992, a new £5 note featuring George Stephenson launched. It was tweaked again for security reasons in 2002, and Stephenson was swapped for Elizabeth Fry. The Bank of England's notes have become increasingly forgery-proof over time with features like security threading and microprinting now standard. The £10 note got a revamp in 1992 with Florence Nightingale replaced by Charles Darwin, who remained on the note until 2018.

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New faces

The £20 note changed in 1991 to feature Michael Faraday and again in 1999, when it depicted Edward Elgar. The £50 note was modified in 1994, and Christopher Wren was replaced with John Houblon. The note was overhauled again in 2011, and John Houblon was swapped for Matthew Boulton and James Watt.

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Polymer notes

In 2015, Scotland's Clydesdale Bank introduced the UK's first polymer note – all notes were printed on cotton paper previously. The Bank of England followed suit the following year with the launch of the new £5 note featuring Winston Churchill. A polymer £10 note with Jane Austen on the reverse launched last year and a new £20 note depicting artist JMW Turner will debut in 2020. A polymer £50 note, which will feature a prominent scientist, is planned for the early 2020s.

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