The Queen’s New Head

An attractive but traditional design is to be introduced for new coins showing a contemporary engraving of the Queen’s head. It is apparently the fifth edition to be issued during her long reign. During Queen Victoria’s even longer (so far) reign there were as I recall only two editions and both were still in circulation when I was young. There were also coins in circulation for King Edward VII, George V and George VI as well as Elizabeth II. The others finally disappeared with the advent of decimalisation. It seems long ago when we had twenty shillings to one pound, twelve pence to a shilling, twenty-one shillings to a guinea and coins with name like thrupenny bit, florin, sixpence, farthing, halfpenny and half a crown. The sovereign was before my day.