[This interesting old thread looks like a suitable place for this article from Leisure Hour (1876, somewhat edited). It dates from the good old days of LSD (pounds, shillings and pence), plus sovereigns, crowns and florins!. And from the days of colonies! The mention of Birmingham mintmasters R Heaton and Sons puts it right on topic. Coin collectors will relish the details, but I think that anyone who has memories of "the old money" will get something out of it. The pictures were assembled from the most readily available internet sources. Below the head of Queen Victoria on the obverse of the sovereign (what a beautiful coin!) can be seen the mintmark "S" (Sydney). The half-sovereign pictured actually dates from 1877 (the closest one I could find!). The half-crown and florin pictured are very worn, as you would expect such commonly used coins of the period to be. The so-called "gothic" florin is interesting in that the obverse bears a distinctive crowned head.]
Coinage of 1875.
No sovereigns were coined at the Royal Mint in London in 1875, a thing which had not happened in any one of the preceding seven years. But there were 2,122,000 sovereigns coined and issued at the Sydney branch of the Royal Mint, and 1,880,000 at the Melbourne branch; and no less than £2,726,000 in Australian gold coin was sent in to the Bank of England available for issue here. There were 516,230 half-sovereigns coined at our Royal Mint in the year. A large amount of light gold coin, withdrawn from circulation, was sent by the Bank of England to the Mint for re-coinage. Silver coins to the amount of nearly £600,000 were struck in the year, and the issue exceeded £700,000, one tenth of which was transmitted to the colonies. No crowns were coined. The coinage of half-crowns, which was resumed in 1874, continued in 1875, and in the latter year above 1,600,000 were issued. Above 1,100,000 florins were coined in 1875, and 4,356,000 shillings and 3,255,000 sixpences. Above 3,000,000 threepenny-pieces were issued; but the demand for these coins has diminished.
The Bank withdrew from circulation in the year worn silver coin of the nominal value of £143,000, and returned it to the Mint for re-coinage; and a further amount of £11,000 was withdrawn in Scotland, and nearly £20,000 in Australia.
Owing to the low price of silver, the profit on the silver coinage alone reached £61,757, which is more than the whole expenses of the Mint.
The profit on the bronze coinage account is still greater. The bronze coinage of the year was very large, and there seems to be a steady increase in the demand for it. There were nearly 12,000,000 pence coined, and above half as many halfpence. It became necessary to have 31 tons struck under contract by Messrs R Heaton and Sons, of Birmingham; these coins bear the Mint mark "H" on the reverse.
The Deputy Master of the Mint, stating the above facts and figures in his report, expresses his regret that the Mint, with its obsolete structure and inefficient machinery, has been unable to execute even the comparatively limited amount of coinage required.
He is able to state that counterfeit coining has of late diminished. The only really successful imitations are made of gilded platinum, sometimes with a rim of pure gold, and are of correct weight and have a good "ring", but when the gold wears off the platinum is disclosed. In most cases, however, the best test for a suspected coin is to weigh it against a piece which is evidently genuine; the instrument called a "detector", used for bending coin, does not prove that a coin is not genuine, neither does "ringing it", for genuine coins may easily be rendered "dumb" by a crack. Counterfeit silver coins are most easily detected through the difficulty of imitating the "milling" or "lettering" on the edge. Some American coiners, however, have recently shown how the inside of a coin may be removed without the milling being disturbed; in which case it is necessary to weigh the coin in order to detect fraud.
