Baldwins have teamed up with Showpiece.com to provide collectors with a unique opportunity to own a piece of the iconic 1937 Edward VIII Penny, a coin with quite the story behind it…
THE STORY:
King Edward VIII abdicated on the 10th. of December 1936 and at this point the Royal Mint was just days away of minting the new king’s coinage which would have gone into full production of millions of coins on the 1st of January. An emergency halt was triggered, and the Royal Mint immediately aborted the production of coins of Edward VIII and went into planning the production of George VI coins.

During the eleven months of Edward’s short reign he had shown considerable interest in the design and development of his new coinage. As Prince of Wales, he had particularly liked the work of Humphry Paget and despite Paget’s strained relationship with the mint’s deputy master, Paget was invited to provide drawings and models of a proposed coinage. The new king wanted more modern designs – reverses with signet rings and fish and deer and the Royal Mint has many drawings of possible designs which they received in the summer of 1936. In the end the Royal mint prevailed on him to accept more traditional designs – largely similar to his father’s coinage.
However, there was on sticking point on which he would not be moved, contrary to long standing tradition that the monarch’s head changes the way it faces each reign, he insisted facing left, i.e. the same direction as his father George V. The reason for this is that he preferred that side view because it showed his parting – rather than the right facing view which just showed just a bob of hair. He was adamant and the Royal Mint was in apoplexy about the break in Royal tradition – even to the extent of suggesting that he have a mirror image of his profile – i.e. a right facing portrait with the parting.

He was the king and his wish prevailed. Patterns of the new coinage were made and presented to him and he made his choice – by the December of 1936 the new coinage was on the point of being produced at the beginning of the new year
When he abdicated on that 10th. day of December all work on the new coinage ceased – however, at that point a number of proof coins had already been produced. A proof coin is a coin struck from specially polished dies to produce superior strike for the purpose of presentation pieces – heralding the issue of a new coinage. (We don’t know how many they had made – but, for instance, for George VI a few months later some 5,501 gold sets were issued). These were all melted down – except that in June of 1938, nearly 2 years after the abdication, George VI was made aware of some sets that had escaped this fate – and therefore asked for one for the Royal Collection. This request was obviously met and the Deputy Master sent him one and placed the remaining sets in a small cardboard box marked – “NOT TO BE OPENED EXCEPT IN THE PRESENCE OF TWO SENIOR OFFICIALS OF THE ROYAL MINT“ – in his safe at the Royal Mint.
When the Deputy Master died in September 1950 the sealed cardboard box was removed from his safe and opened on the grounds of taking inventory and recorded. Inside four sets of Edward VII coins were found – one set missing the three gold denominations.

At some point the Duke of Windsor learnt of the discovery, possibly from his brother and in late 1951 he approached the Royal Mint asking if he could perhaps have a set. Much to the Royal Mint’s relief the matter was deferred to George VI for a decision, which he declined. The Duke of Windsor most likely did not know that any of his proposed coins had actually been made – for if he did, he would surely have asked them before 1951
Two further sets are known – and these must have got out ‘unofficially’ as they are in the public domaine but how, we do not know. One is a complete set that is now in the Tyrant collection, and one is a set that has been broken up and the coins sold individually and periodically come onto the market.
So, this means there are seven Proof sets in existence – one owned by the Queen (from her father), four at the Royal Mint and British Museum (of which one set is missing the gold denominations and one set is matt proof) and two sets out in the market – one as a complete set and one as individual coins. Consequently, there is only one, unique opportunity of acquiring an Edward VIII coin and that is from the broken-up set.
It is from this set that our penny comes !
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