The Coinage Act 1816 (56 Geo. 3. c. 68), also known as the Coin Act 1816 or Liverpool’s Act,[1] defined the value of the pound sterling relative to gold, moving the UK from its previous bimetallism and towards the adoption of a gold standard. One Troy pound (373 g) of standard (22-carat) gold was defined as equivalent to £46 14s 6d.[2]
The government was facing a scarcity of small change, and in response decided to abandon the idea of bimetallism – the simultaneous circulation of gold and silver coins – and instead adopted a single gold standard. Silver coins were reduced to the status of tokens, their continued existence necessary because gold coins for small values would be tiny. But silver coins were no longer considered to be legal tender for transactions in excess of forty shillings.[3]
Lisle, George. “British Currency Gold.” Accounting in Theory and Practice, William Green & Sons, 1906.
Redish, Angela. “The Evolution of the Gold Standard in England.” The Journal of Economic History, vol. 50, no. 4, Dec. 1990, pp. 789–805, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2122455.
Sargent, Thomas J. The Big Problem of Small Change. Princeton University Press, 2002.
We use cookies to optimise our website and our service. By clicking on “All cookies”, you consent to us using all cookies and plug-ins as described in our Cookie policy.
Functional cookies
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
