Description
The first King Charles III platinum maundy issue
The first Platinum Maundy Set has been produced in King Charles III’s reign. The set, dated 2023, has been produced in platinum – not silver as is customary – to mark his Coronation year. If you don’t know the history of Maundy coins then there is more about this below, but they have a rich historical significance dating back many hundreds of years.
A summary of the benefits of this set
- The first platinum Maundy Set in the reign of King Charles III has just been produced and, dated 2023, it marks the year of his Coronation. This is an important ‘first’ and there is no way of knowing when, or indeed if, a platinum Maundy Set will ever again be produced in this monarch’s reign. (In the 70 year reign of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, there was only one occasion on which a platinum Maundy Set was made available).
- Maundy coins are deeply historic: they have been produced for use of the monarch at the ceremony on Maundy Thursday (just before Easter) as gifts to deserving recipients, and only rarely are they made available to people outside this ceremony.
- A set of Maundy coins is made up of four coins: an 18mm diameter fourpence, a 16mm diameter threepence, a 13mm diameter twopence, and an 11mm diameter penny. Almost always produced in silver they are, on very rare occasions, produced as commemoratives in gold or platinum.
- The reverse design on the 2023 King Charles III Maundy Set in Platinum is a series of interlocking ‘C’s and this has a direct link with the Maundy coins of his namesake, King Charles II.
What is special about ‘Maundy’ coins?
Maundy coins are produced mainly for use by the monarch in the Maundy ceremony on the Thursday before Easter. There began a custom of the monarch giving gifts of clothing and food to needy recipients at this ceremony each year and, in turn, this evolved into the giving of money instead.
After the Restoration of the Monarchy and in the reign of King Charles II, coins were struck specially for the use of the monarch in this ceremony. Most recipients spent the monetary gift and so the coins were small values to enable them to be easily spent: a fourpence, threepence, twopence and penny.
These coins were the same size and value as coins being put into circulation, but as time moved on, they began not to be produced for general use. Over time, these four coins were made only for use in the Maundy ceremony.
This is how the Maundy Set evolved: four relatively small silver coins of face values of fourpence, threepence, twopence and penny. They are for use by the monarch in the Maundy ceremony, and have also been presented to others involved in the ceremony, and on just a handful of occasions – such as now – have been produced by different issuing authorities and in other metals such as platinum to mark deeply significant royal events
Minted in 99.9% pure platinum to celebrate the reign of a new monarch
Maundy tradition has a very close connection with the monarch, and Maundy coins were originally minted to enable the monarch to distribute gifts of money. This strong connection remains today.
Maundy coins have historically been produced in silver. Even in 1947 when Britain’s circulating silver coinage had all the silver removed, and became minted from cupronickel, the Maundy coins continued to be produced from silver. So why, now, do we have a set of Maundy coins before us, in platinum?
On a handful of occasions sets of Maundy coins have been produced in gold and on one previous occasion in platinum. Although these special Maundy Sets have never been part of the service on Maundy Thursday, or the monarch’s gift to recipients, they have been produced to celebrate incredibly significant Royal events. Maundy coins have a very close relationship with the monarch and so they make an equally important commemoration of events that have great significance to the monarch.
That is why we have this set before us now. This has been produced to mark the Coronation year – 2023 – of our new king, Charles III. We don’t know when – or if – there will ever again be a platinum Maundy set released in his reign – but what we DO know is that the set before us now will always be THE FIRST.
