Pontefract Castle (Yorkshire), Charles II
Not on view
The supplies of bullion brought to Europe from the New World in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries caused inflation, and in response new coinage was issued with a wider range of denominations. Gold coins like the sovereign, with the value of one pound, twenty shillings, first appeared in 1489. It was replaced by the unite in 1604 and by the guinea in 1663. Initially minted in gold, the crown was also produced in silver from 1551, with standardized dimensions similar to other European coins.
As a vehicle of political propaganda, coins usually have a realistic depiction of the sovereign. However, as in the case of the emergency coinage made when towns were under siege, crudely made examples, such as the one from the Royalist city of Pontefract, were struck during the English Civil War.
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