Stamps, coins and royal cyphers

14 May

For our final Coronation Special episode we digress to talk about royal faces on stamps and coins, and the importance of royal cyphers.

Royals on stamps

If you live in the UK, the postie who delivers your letters has Royal origins. Well, not the actual person, but the institution they work for, the postal service. For centuries, royal court documents were carried around not by a postie on a bike, but my messengers of the Court and special royal couriers.

But the beginnings of a modern postal service began with Henry VIII, who founded the Royal Mail in 1516, to get letters and court documents around to the several courts in his kingdom. It was Henry VIII’s Master of the Posts who set up post stops around the kingdom so that Royal couriers, who were riding post-haste, could change over their horses.

When letters were particularly urgent, their cover was inscribed with

Haste – post haste.

And this would signify that no time was to be lost getting them to where they needed to go.

But by the time we get to Charles I in 1635, money was running a little tight so he opened up the royal postal service to the public, for a fee of course.

And while public usage of the postal service slowly increased, the requirements of the service really only focused on what the court needed, not so much attention was put into getting everyday mail to their destination. Clearly if it wasn’t royal, it wasn’t important.

And so, as the years came and went, the postal system evolved to become a complicated, confusing, and incredibly expensive system to use. At the time, a letter would be paid for upon delivery, and the price would be set depending on how many sheets of paper the letter consisted of and how far the courier had travelled to deliver it. So, yeah, I can imagine how the whole system could be rife with inconsistent prices.

Once we get around to 1840, we’ve got Queen Victoria on the throne, and something really needs to be done about the state of the Royal Mail Service. So it is up to Sir Rowland Hill to present a simple yet brilliant solution. Postage stamps.

The first such postage stamp to come into use was the Uniform Penny Postage with the Queen’s likeness upon it. And just like everyone else, the Queen’s letters, too, bore a postage stamp. In fact, those in Victoria’s court sent so many letters, that in 1897 special postal facilities were created in the form of a Court Post Office, which actually still exists today, managed by the Court Postmaster at, where else but Buckingham Palace.

Now a miniature silhouette of the monarch’s head will appear on all postal stamps in some fashion. And the very first postal stamp, featuring Queen Victoria is known as a Penny Black, because of the black colouring of the stamp.

The image chosen of the Queen was created by William Wyon, who was Chief Engraver at the Royal Mint at the time, and is based on a youthful sketch of the Queen from when she was only 15.

And the Penny Black stamp proved to be most popular with 68 million of them being printed before the colour was changed, to create the Penny Red. This colour change came about because the cancellation mark stamped onto a letter to show that the stamp has been used was difficult to see through the black of the Penny Black, hence the change to a brick red. And for the decades following, pink and blue versions have followed. One of the most popular of these stamps was the Penny Lilac, first issued out to the public in 1881, over 20 years around 33 million were printed. That’s a whole lotta stamps.

Interestingly, the image used on stamps throughout Queen Victoria’s reign didn’t change. It was the same youthful image the whole time. This is in contrast to her portrait on coins and medals, where they would be updated as the Queen aged, as we have seen over the lifetime of the recently late, Queen Elizabeth II.

But when Victoria died, and Edward VII took the throne, naturally stamps with a new portrait were needed. And so, with each passing monarch new stamps with a new portrait in side-profile are produced.

Probably the rarer stamps to be produced are those featuring Edward VIII, who abdicated about a year after his father’s death. Only four sets of stamps were issued during the short time he reigned, the rest of the production being halted, and the Royal Mail scrambling to come up with designs for the new, new King, George VI.

Throughout the years, special commemoration stamps have been released, such as the stamps celebrating 100 years since the release of the Penny Black, which was a commemorative stamp depicting Queen Victoria together with the reigning monarch at the time, George VI. There’s also a stamp commemorating the liberation of the Channel Islands from German occupation in 1945. Interestingly, this particular stamp also revitalised tourism in Guernsey and Jersey.

The late Queen’s image has appeared on UK postage stamps since June 1967, and like Victoria, has remained unchanged throughout her reign. The bust of the Queen, created by Arnold Machin, is believed to be the most reproduced image in history, with over 200 million examples produced. That’s a lot of images of the Queen’s head. And that isn’t even counting all the coins, but don’t worry, we’ll get to those in a little bit.

With the regularity of changing postage rates, the Royal Mail was getting pretty sick and tired of changing the stamps every time. So they came up with a brilliant solution: they would stop printing stamps with monetary values on them. The stamps would instead be separated into first and second class divisions, and it was these designations that would determine what price they would cost. Now that’s a perfect example of working smarter, not harder.

It was also during the Queen’s reign that other royals, apart from the monarch, were seen on commemorative stamps, one such one being the stamp commemorating the marriage between Prince William and Catherine Middleton.

And now that we have a new monarch, Charles III, so too do we have new stamps.

From coins and banknotes to the official royal cypher used by the government, replacements featuring the new monarch have been slowly introduced since the Queen’s death in September.

The new stamp, is quite plain, featuring the King’s head on a plain-coloured background. Here’s David Gold, the Royal Mail’s Director of External Affairs and Policy giving us a run-down of how they came about the design:

As with all stamps, the monarch approved them and so we hope that he’s happy with this design … The guidance we were given was not to try to be too clever or to try to veer off into some different direction, but very much to keep that traditional image that we’re all very much used to.

Being the 7th monarch to appear on a definitive stamp, and with so many of the late Elizabeth II still floating around, the Royal Mail has announced that any existing stamps featuring the late Queen’s image will still remain valid and will continue to be distributed and sold until the current stock is exhausted, with the new stamps featuring the new King’s image to enter circulation only once the stocks of the old stamps are all used up.

Royals on coins

Just as the monarchy is tied in with the history of stamps, so too are they with the UK monetary system. And this shouldn’t come as any surprise considering the company itself is called the Royal Mint, and that the back of every coin has a portrait of the sitting monarch.

The first coins believed to be struck in the British Isles, were thought to be created about 2000 years ago, in a similar form as those coming out of Ancient Greece. Of course, once the Roman’s made a home in Britain in 43 AD, they lost no time at all in getting a coinage system set up. What kind of heathens trade without coins?

Once the Roman Empire lost power in Britain from about the 5th century, the silver penny seemed to be the dominant coin in use, but there was no standardised system just yet. That would come in the 8th century, when regions would merge together under one king, effectively centralising the currency.

Alfred the Great set about authorising mints in the burghs he had founded, and images of the King naturally developed to appear on the coins.

Their face being on a coin in people’s pockets was all part of a monarch’s propaganda. The further a coin would spread by being passed from hand to hand would make the King more known and famous. In fact it was this image that was the only likeness many would see of the King in their lifetime.

By the time we get to the end of the 10th century, it’s the English monarchy that has the most sophisticated coinage system out of the countries that make up Western Europe.

But what’s really quite shocking, is that up until 1280, the only Royal coins in circulation were the silver pennies, that became popular after the Roman’s left. It wasn’t until much later that other denominations started to emerge. And then about the mid-14th century we see the introduction of a regular gold coin in 1489 with the gold sovereign under Henry VII.

It was during this time, that we start to see counterfeiting coins becoming popular. We talked briefly about the Trail of the Pyx in our Westminster Abbey episode, where the coins were melted down to ensure their true value. This crime was pretty serious though, counterfeiting coins was considered to be

an interference with the administration of government and the representation of the monarch

and therefore, would be punishable by death. There’s a pretty interesting aside here involving Sir Isaac Newton and his fight against counterfeiting, but perhaps that’s a digression for another day.

The Royal Mint itself, up until the 19th century, could be found at the Tower of London and if you were to wander over there yourself, you can still see some pretty cool stuff. But the reason for it being at the Tower of London was because the place wasn’t a top tourist attraction like it is today. Being located at the royal palace and having the source of money directly under your control as a monarch, is a pretty good position to be in.

The English weren’t the only ones in Britain issuing coins though, the Scottish were also getting in on the action, albeit sparingly.

The first Scottish King to issue a coinage is believed to have been David I, then by the time we get to Alexander III we see production in minting start to ramp up a bit as Scotland increases trade with Europe.

By the time we get to James VI coming to the English throne in 1603 the Scottish coinage was fixed to a ration of 1:12 with the English coinage, and then once the Act of Union was signed in 1707, unique Scottish coinage ceased.

Up until Charles II, all the coins were struck by hand, no doubt, by people working very hard. Then from Charles II onwards, a streamlined production system started to take shape. It was also during the time of Charles II, that the tradition of monarchs facing the opposite way to their immediate predecessor developed.

The only exception to this rule throughout the centuries has been Edward VIII, who decided he preferred his left side, as opposed to the traditional right, as was custom. Thankfully Edward wasn’t King for very long, and George VI restored the tradition with his coinage portrait also facing left, pretending that Edward’s had faced right. So I guess, then, that there were three monarchs in a row with their heads facing left. Must have been something pretty interesting to look at over that way.

In 1816, the Industrial Revolution did wonders for production the world over, as it too did for the Royal Mint. They even moved from their home in the Tower of London to new steam powered coining presses on Tower Hill nearby. And then even more changes in the 1960s, when the Royal Mint moved again over to quite modern premises out near Cardiff.

Throughout the thousands of years of having a monarch on coins, we finally find ourselves at the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Throughout Elizabeth II’s reign there have been five portraits of the Queen on circulating coins. And it wasn’t just in Britain where you could find coins with the Queen’s likeness either. At one point, the Queen appeared on 33 different currencies around the world, more than any other monarch in history, giving her a World Record to add her to her collection.

The Queen can be seen on all currencies in the UK, as well as some of the Commonwealth nations, like Belize, some Eastern Caribbean countries and the $20 note in Canada. Here in Australia, you can currently see her on the $5 note, although not for much longer, more on that in a second, and on the back of all coins.

As we head into the reign of Charles III, we too will see a change in the portrait on the coins. And it’s already started. Back in December 2022, the Royal Mint issued the first set of coins featuring Charles III. It’s just commemorative coins to start, with the Queen on the other side, but coins with Charles’s face on it will start to be introduced into circulation shortly. The Royal Mint thinks the full process of changing things over to Charles III will take about two years.

And don’t worry if you’ve got a whole lot of Elizabeth II coins in your pocket, and with reportedly more than 27 billion coins with her portrait still in circulation in the UK I have no doubt that you do. The Royal Mint has assured everyone that any existing coins and banknotes featuring the Queen will remain legal tender and valid. So it seems we will have a pretty exciting time of Charles and Elizabeth coinage circulating together.

And seeing as new notes and coins will only be printed as supply runs low, it will probably be some time yet, before the Queen’s coinage is removed from circulation all together.

We’ve spoken a lot about the coins, so as for banknotes, the Bank of England has said that they’re expecting the new notes, featuring a portrait of the King, to be entering circulating around the middle of 2024, but they’re not in too much of a hurry, with the image to be used not being revealed until towards the end of 2023.

To have an image of a monarch on a note is a much more recent addition. Even though bank notes have been around since the late 17th century, they didn’t start having more clout over coins until the 19th century. I guess it was in the 19th century that people started wanting something lighter to have in their pocket than heavy coins.

And it has only been since 1960 that the Sovereign has appeared upon English banknotes, meaning the Queen is the only one to do so to date, so it will be quite exciting, and no doubt a little odd, to see Charles in place of the Queen.

Down here in Australia, it’s been decided that the Queen will be removed from our $5 note altogether, and an indigenous design would be featured instead of a new image of Charles III. But there’s no need to worry, the King will still be on back of the coins. Here’s Jim Chalmers, the current Treasurer, telling us what’s going to happen:

The monarch will still be on the coins, but the $5 note will say more about our history and our heritage and our country, and I see that as a good thing.

And a good thing it is too.

Royal cyphers

You’ve no doubt seen a royal cypher around, especially if you live in the UK or in a Commonwealth country, but what exactly is a Royal Cypher?

A Royal Cypher is a monogram that combines the monarch’s initials, their title and a crown. Sometimes the letters standalone, sometimes their intwined, each one is chosen by the monarch themselves and so represents their style.

We can really see the differences between different cyphers when comparing Queen Victoria’s interlaced ‘VR’ to the separate and clean ‘EIIR’ that Queen Elizabeth II chose.

But the most common place to find Royal Cyphers are Pillar Post Boxes. These are all over the UK, and the best way to date when a post box was installed is by looking for their cypher. The cypher identifies the monarch that was on the throne at the time, and therefore you can get an idea of the rough time the post box was put in. And once there’s a new monarch they don’t waste time by changing the cypher either, it’s there forever, with new post boxes featuring the new monarch’s cypher.

You can do the same for buildings, medals, the watermarks in stamps, postmarks, there’s even a toilet roll holder with George VI’s cypher, so there’s all sorts of things that feature a Royal Cypher.

The use of Royal Cyphers can be traced all the way back to the House of Tudor and Henry VII. Before this cyphers would mainly be used as a means of identification, appearing with the Royal Arms.

But Henry VII started using his as an identifying mark on government papers, and that’s what it’s still used for in the UK today. Then Henry VIII mixed things up a little when he added the letter ‘R’ to his first initial. This ‘R’ represents the Latin for King or Queen, so Rex or Regina.

But it was Queen Vic who started adding her Royal Cypher to letter boxes. One of the earliest such post boxes was installed on the Channel Islands, these days you can see it at the Postal Museum. But this might make you a bit confused, because the Channel Islands are but a Crown Dependency and not part of the UK, so why is Queen Victoria putting her Royal Cypher on things over there, well that’s probably because the postal service managed the mail on the Islands, and they are run by the UK.

Something that’s pretty interesting is that in 1876, when Victoria became the Empress of India, she added an ‘I’ to the end of her cypher, so that it read ‘VRI’. The ‘I’ stood for ‘Imperatrix’ or ‘Empress’ in Latin.

Then as we go through the monarchs since Victoria, Edward VII, George V, briefly Edward VIII, George VI, Elizabeth II and now Charles III, we see a new cypher with each new monarch. Each of them distinct from those that came before. George V’s was so distinct it didn’t even include the ‘V’ for five. Even though he was the fifth King to go by the name George, he was the first George to use a cypher, so decided he didn’t need the ‘V’ to be distinguishable. And then of course Edward VIII’s reign was so short, that those post boxes with his cypher are less than 200, and quite the rare find, although you can see one of them at The Postal Museum, if you wander over that way. With George VI, even though he was King for 16 years, for a good chunk of that time the Second World War was raging, and so production for post boxes understandably slowed. So his are a rare find as well. And now with Elizabeth II, because she was Queen for so long, her Royal Cypher is rather easy to spot.

But now that we have a new monarch, a new cypher has been revealed. It follows the custom of those that have come before it, with the monarch’s first initial, ‘C’, next to an ‘R’ for the Latin word for King, a representation of the Crown, and three ‘i’’s seeing as Charles is the third King to be known as Charles.

Camilla, the Queen Consort, even has her own Royal Cypher, also made up of her monogram with a crown. She will use it on her personal letterheads and cards.

All these cyphers are the personal property of the monarch that chose them and they are personally selected. Charles chose his from a series of designs put together by The College of Arms. Which was founded in 1484 and holds the responsibility of creating and maintaining official registers of coats of arms and pedigrees.

If you wander around in Scotland, you probably won’t see a Royal Cypher, instead you will see a Scottish Crown. This is the Scottish version of the Royal Cypher.

So when Queen Elizabeth took the throne, and her Royal Cypher with a proud two in the middle started to be put up on Scottish post boxes, the Scotch got a bit cranky. Because Elizabeth is not the second Elizabeth to rule Scotland, but the first.

Elizabeth I was only Queen of England and Wales, not Scotland. It wasn’t until her heir, James VI of Scotland, became King of England and Wales that the English monarch was the same as the Scottish monarch.

So understandably when EIIR starts appearing on post boxes in Scotland, some got a little cranky. There was graffiti and strongly worded letters, which aren’t too bad. But then the violence started to escalate, and some post boxes were sadly blown up and the cypher vandalised.

After some pretty serious attacks, the then Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, decided it would be best if Scotland had an alternative design, their own design. And that’s where the image of the Crown of St Andrew became the Scottish Cypher. As part of the regalia of the Honours of Scotland, it seemed a perfect fit.

So will we be seeing Charles’ cypher appearing all over the place now? Probably, but most likely not for a while. We’ll see it on all official government documents, but in terms of post boxes, I think we’ll have to wait for new ones to start to crop up.

If you found any of this talk of Royal Cyphers interesting, you might be into cypher-spotting, which, thanks to the changing of the monarch, has quite the renewed interest. Especially if you’re in the UK, have a look around and see how many Royal Cypher’s you can identify, you may just find a rare one.

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