As surprising as this may seem to some people alive today, Christmas is not about presents, drinking mulled wine, or eating Roast Turkey & Pigs in blankets (those are 'just' traditions), Christmas is a Christian religious celebration of the birth of Christ...
And whether you believe in Christ or not, there's no denying that Christ was an important figure in history. So what better way to mark His upcoming birthday than to present you with coins with his portrait, coins with depictions of Him and the Madonna, or even coins that were around during His lifetime?
But if you love our Christmas traditions as much as we do, why not remember them with our Set of 5 Silver Threepences for Christmas Puddingor our Set of10 Different Christmas FDCs? If you want to add something special to your collection during this Holiday season, have a look at the 1787 Sixpence in Unc. These were only given during Christmas time to people important enough to deal with the Bank of England directly.
These George III Sterling Silver 1787 Sixpences were only struck for circulation for just one year, 1787. What is even more interesting is that they were struck for the Bank of England to give out to their favoured clients around Christmas. You have King George III in an armoured bust on the obverse and four crowns and four shields on the reverse. Today the Royal Mint is charging £95 in Fine. The reverse in some ways is even more interesting than the obverse. As you have the arms of England, Ireland, Scotland, Hanover and France. The coins on offer are very high grade and becoming very difficult to find these days. They are available in Extremely Fine. Remember that this coin is now over 230 years old and in very high quality.
Most will know about the illness of King George III, but most don’t know that because of that illness the King would not allow a law to make smaller coins to be passed. This of course caused a lot of problems with day-to-day commerce; there just were not enough small coins around to make change. There are only two silver coins struck before the Currency Reform Act of 1816, that are readily available to collectors: the George III Sixpence and the Shilling of 1787. There is a simple but almost unbelievable reason for this. These coins were struck at the Royal Mint from silver delivered from the Bank of England. The Bank decided that they would need some new shiny coins to give out to their clients at Christmas. So only the Bank of England had these silver coins, and they only handed them out during the Christmas period, and only to their wealthy clients. So now you have the whole history! You have King George III dressed in what looks like Roman armour, and on the reverse the arms of Hanover and France as well as England, Scotland, and Ireland. Back in 1787, you had to be somehow important to have one of these Sixpences, important enough to do business directly with the Bank of England, and someone they wanted to treat. We have selected some very high-quality examples of this beautiful and very important historical coin for your collection.
