A crown might be something a monarch wears, or a specifically British coin denomination, but to world coin collectors a "crown" is much more.
Crown-sized coins are generally those silver coins measuring in a range from 33 to 50 millimeters in diameter and weighing about 20 to 30 grams in weight. The term "crown" is sometimes used to describe the copper-nickel versions of the previously silver coins. Crowns are popular with collectors of "modern" world coins, generally defined as coins produced from A.D. 1500 to the present.
Crown-sized coins, issued by numerous countries, are available in numerous denominations – pesos, dinars, francs, shillings, reales, marks, dollars and, yes, even crowns.
The first modern European crown-sized silver coin, the taler, was issued in Austria in the mid-1480s. In a relatively short period, the silver crown gained wide popularity and was adopted nearly everywhere in Europe.
The term "crown" embraces most silver coins of the size and weight mentioned, and generally references any silver-dollar-sized coin. "In some cases coins smaller than dollar size are accepted as crowns if they are the largest silver coin minted by that particular country," writes Arthur Horowitz in the foreword to Crowns of the World by Gene Galletta.
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All images courtesy of Ira & Larry Goldberg Coins & Collectibles. THE FIRST ENGLISH CROWN was struck in 1551 during the reign of Edward VI. The denomination would last more than 400 years.
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English, foreign ties
Crown-size coins derive their name from the English silver coins of the crown denomination. These were sporadically struck from 1551 to 1937, and in copper-nickel until 1965, according to The MacMillan Encyclopedic Dictionary of Numismatics by Richard G. Doty. Since 1990, as the largest size United Kingdom coin, the £5 coin has been considered a "crown."
Though there are gold crowns, Doty notes that "when we say 'crown,' we are mainly thinking of a silver coin."
The earliest English silver crown could be described as an offshoot of the European taler, Doty writes, that was issued more than a half century earlier, as noted previously.
Size and weight of the taler varied throughout its existence, Doty said, but at 25 to 30 grams, and 39 to 45 millimeters, the original or earlier taler was close to the size of the crown coins. Later talers were more standardized in size, and smaller and lighter.
Silver deposits in central Europe were fashioned into silver coinage, first by count Sigismund of the Austrian Tyrol, the first issuer of talers. The taler depicts the archduke standing. "An immediate advantage of the new coin was its size, which offered greater possibility for adventurous portraiture and designs than the older, smaller coins," Doty writes.
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All images courtesy of Ira & Larry Goldberg Coins & Collectibles. CANADA'S FIRST crown-sized coin is the 1935 silver Voyageur dollar.
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Soon, other states in mining areas were issuing their own coins. The counts of Schlick, who owned the mines of Joachimsthal in Bohemia, struck their Joachimsthaler coins with abundance in the 1520s and 1530s, according to Doty. The name was soon adopted for other similar large silver coins, and shortened to taler (or "thaler" in the German language).
The practice of issuing taler-sized coins soon spread throughout other parts of central Europe, especially in the many states comprising the Holy Roman Empire, and the coins' size was a key reason.
"Princes found its space so useful to celebrate themselves and their accomplishments," Doty writes. Talers have also been used as commemorative coins from these early times.
The first English silver crowns were minted under King Edward VI from 1551 to 1553, as part of a series of monetary reforms. These English crowns were worth five shillings and were significant for many reasons, according to Doty.
At 31 grams and 42 millimeters, the English crowns were the "most massive coin the English had ever produced." Edward VI's crowns were struck by hand.
The Edward VI crown was also a "well-designed coin, more Renaissance than medieval," Doty writes. The king is depicted in full armor, mounted on a horse, on the obverse, with his titles in Latin as the legend. The reverse has a "strikingly simple English shield at the center of a cross, the arms of which separate the words of a pious legend, again in Latin."
The 1551 crown and companion halfcrown coin are the first-dated British coins, although the practice of dating English coins was not immediately adopted for other denominations ("indeed, the nation would not regularly date its coins for more than another century," Doty writes.)
For many years, the crown was not an "overwhelming success," according to Doty. The next issue wasn't until 1601, near the end of Elizabeth I's reign.
Issuance of crown coins accelerated under Charles II's reign (1660 to 1685), mainly because of the adoption of the screw press in 1662 (the press made it possible to strike more coins more quickly than they could be struck by hand) and the abundance of silver England received in world trade.
Gaining acceptance
Elsewhere, the issuance of crown-sized coins continued to spread, though slowly.
By 1600, the most prominent issuers of crown-sized coins had been the German states, and Austria and Hungary, but the Italian states, the Papal states, Poland, Lithuania, Spain, Spanish Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Transylvania and the United Netherlands had also issued such coins.
France didn't adopt the crown until a series of coinage reforms in 1641, according to Joseph Lepczyk, in the 1977 catalog for his auction of the George Sobin collection of French ecus. These were the first royal crown-sized silver pieces intended for regular circulation in France.
Crown-sized coins are plentiful, one of the factors that makes collecting them easy.
From 1944 to 1979, Dr. John Davenport published eight studies of European crowns and found more than 10,000 distinct issues. Chester L. Krause and Clifford Mishler, with editor Colin R. Bruce II, used Davenport's work as the basis for the 1982 Standard Catalog of World Crowns & Talers. The 1982 edition of the book covers issues from 1484 to 1968 and expands on Davenport's work, adding detailed coverage of the dollar-sized coins of Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Some of the most interesting, historical and rare coins are crown-sized.
One of the most fantastic crowns of Great Britain is the 1847 Victoria "Gothic" crown, which mark¬ed the 10th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne. The "Gothic" nickname derives from its ornate border and lettering, and the clothing style Victoria wears in the depiction.
The 1894 silver 5-mark coin of German New Guinea depicting the bird of paradise is noted for its beautiful design.
More recently, the 1935 Waitangi crown of New Zealand is that nation's most significant rarity. The coin was struck to commemorate the Treaty of Waitangi, which made New Zealand a British colony while ensuring the native Maori retained the right to self-governance.
Also in 1935, Canada issued its first crown-sized silver coin for circulation, the Voyageur dollar. It depicts two fur traders in a canoe.
With their 38.1-millimeter diameter and weight close to 27 grams, the United States' Seated Liberty, Trade, Morgan and Peace dollars all qualify as crowns. The Eisenhower dollar, though the same diameter, weighs less – the copper-nickel clad version weighs about 23 grams, and the silver-copper clad version, about 25 grams – though it still qualifies as a crown coin.
Recent iterations
Since the 1960s, the definition for what is a crown coin has shifted to include most of the nickel-alloy coins of the same range of size and weight; governments abandoned silver for coinage as the price of the metal rose.
Governments have continued to issue crown-sized commemorative coins, maybe even more so than before.
Finland's 1951 and 1952 Olympic Games 500-markka coins, which were the first coins to commemorate a modern Olympics, qualify as crowns under the broad meaning of the term.
Egypt's first crowns as a newly formed republic are the 25- and 50-piastre coins issued in 1956. The 50-piastre coin depicts slaves breaking the chain of bondage.
This is just a minor look at the subject – governments have issued tens of thousands of different crown-sized coins. You can tailor a collection of them to any number of stipulations, such as issuing nation, year or topic. With some persistence, you'll find a collection of crown-sized coins rewarding and educational.
