Card of the Day - 2023-02-16

Amalgamated British Coins Costumes
Amalgamated Tobacco Corporation Ltd [tobacco : UK] "British Coins and Costumes" (1958) 13/25 - A495-210

Only one card code here, because this set was issued in 1958 and our original World Tobacco Issues Index in 1956. The catalogue entry says simply "Sm. Nd. (25)"  which means small or standard size, numbered, and the number that makes a set appears within the brackets. However the top of the entry for Amalgamated Tobacco Corporation Ltd says that the cards are 68 x 36 m/m and the reason that the "Fumez les Fameuses Cigarettes "Mills" is in French is because the cards were issued in Mauritius. 

So here we have another pre-decimal coin, which is the Sovereign. This was first produced by the Royal Mint in 1489, though it was a much larger and heavier coin than you may imagine, in fact there is very little evidence that it was ever used in daily life or in trade. And you can still buy modern sovereigns today - and they are legal tender to use, which is a very interesting fact indeed, because it means that they are actually exempt from Capital Gains Tax within the United Kingdom. However if you run out of other cash and take one down the corner shop you would not even get the oatly for your cornflakes - because it is only legal tender for the sum of one pound. 

Despite this the Sovereign was not issued continuously. It was removed from coinage in 1603 by James the 1st, and replaced with a much lighter coin called the Unite, which was worth twenty shillings. The Unite was named after the fact that he was now King of Great Britain, France and Ireland.

The Sovereign came back in 1817, but disappeared again when the First World War started in 1914, being temporarily replaced by a banknote. The thought was that after the war it would come back, but this did not happen, though, intriguingly, it was still minted in our overseas territories into the 1930s.

Then in 1953, for the Coronation  of Queen Elizabeth II, the Sovereign was again minted, though they seem only to have been placed at museums and bank collections. It was not until 1957 that the Sovereign was available to be purchased, but as a bullion, proof, and investors coin.