Objects of War: Currency in a time of Conflict

In 1688 James II had been forced out of England by William of Orange, and having fled to France was persuaded his best chance of returning to power lay in using southern Ireland as a base. Battles needed to be fought, but gold and silver coins were in short supply in Dublin and the idea was seized upon of producing coins from copper-based alloys. Remarkably their manufacture apparently included use of armaments, such as cannons and guns, as well as all manner of scrap brass and bronze in other forms, which accounts for the term gun money being applied some years later.

For William III (1689-1702) the need to initiate a recoinage to restore the value and reputation of England's currency was directly linked to his war against Louis XIV. This coin was minted at the temporary mint in Norwich marked with an N below the King's effigy.

During the English Civil War, currency was also created locally in conditions where groups found themselves cut off from normal sources of supply. Advances in siege warfare during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries made it a more effective tactic and cities with an army camped outside the gates sometimes chose to create their own emergency money, known as siege pieces.

During times of conflict, coins which would otherwise be destined for everyday transactions would be re-directed to cover supplies and soldiers' pay, but from time to time special arrangements were made and occasionally it is possible to identify specific coins struck for war.

During the English Civil War, Carlisle became an isolated royalist outpost in the north of England when the city was besieged by a Scots army from October 1644. Every citizen, it is recorded, was ordered to offer up their silver plate to be coined and in May 1645 one and three-shilling pieces were the outcome.

With the exception of 1797 and 1798, gold had not been minted in Britain in any substantial amount since the early 1790s but an exception was made towards the end of the Peninsular War (1808-14). The coins, dated 1813, which came to be known as military guineas, were shipped out to Wellington for use in the Peninsula. Only about 360,000 were minted and they were the last guineas to be produced.

Paying for campaigns sometimes involved making the money of other states. In 1815 production began at the Mint on Tower Hill of French Louis d'Or twenty franc gold coins. The purpose in mind was to supply British troops in France with coins they could readily spend.

Output of the nickel-brass threepence increased during the Second World War, reaching a peak of £1.2 million in 1942-3. It is thought their popularity was influenced by their shape, the ease of recognising the distinctive twelve sides being especially appreciated during blackouts.

In the English Civil War of the 17th century, a similar occurrence took place. After Charles I left London on 10th January 1642, he was denied access to the Mint in the Tower so forces loyal to him established mints in support of his military campaigns against the parliamentarians. Royalist mints were set up in Oxford, Bristol, Truro, Exeter, York and Chester, with the output at Oxford including large and elaborately designed triple unites in gold.

The deliberate capture of gold and silver has acted as a supplementary source of metal for coinage, the better documented occasion being the seizure in 1702 of bullion by British forces at Vigo Bay in north west Spain.

What was recovered from the Spanish ships was brought back to London and, to draw attention to the successful action, silver and gold coins were produced with the word 'Vigo' placed beneath the bust of Queen Anne.

An often higher demand for coinage at a time when raw materials were in short supply was a perfect storm of inconvenience for mint authorities during the Second World War. This photograph shows the Mint building at Tower Hill scarred by bomb damage.

During the Second World War there was a fear that the Royal Mint could be put out of action as a result of enemy bombing. Some equipment was therefore moved from London to establish an auxiliary mint in an old scenery store at Pinewood Studios at Iver Heath in Buckinghamshire.

The new Mint began operations in June 1941 and, being equipped with furnaces, rolling mills, blanking presses and eight Heaton presses, it was entirely self-sufficient. In addition to lower denomination base metal British coins, the temporary facility maintained the international profile of the Mint's commitments by producing coins for Ireland, Iraq and Peru.

There are many examples of coins playing an emotional as opposed to an economic role in the setting of war, which is encountered during the Great War with soldiers engraving personal messages on coins. Shell cases were a favoured medium but messages were carved into the surface of pennies, and other denominations, frequently to a wife or family member.

Their crude appearance is suggestive of the basic tools available but there are instances of some being well thought-through, bearing designs inspired by regimental badges. Here we have a silver coin skilfully engraved with the design of the cap badge of the Royal Artillery and bearing the inscription 'From a friend to a friend'.

England's patron saint first arrived on the English coinage in 1526 under Henry VIII on the short-lived George noble. It was a splendid creation, a charging heavily armoured knight, the plain cross of St George emblazoned on his chest, thrusting a lance into the open mouth of a dragon.

The portraits by Thomas Rawlins of Charles I shown mounted are amongst the most memorable of English coinage designs. Perhaps the most dramatic is the silver twenty shillings of 1642 on which the king, somewhat formal in posture, is shown trampling over a collection of arms and armour.

Countermarking has in many instances been intended as an endorsement, but the motivation behind certain marks cannot be seen as anything other than provocative. During the troubles in Northern Ireland both sides took to stamping the initials of paramilitary organisation into coins.

War and conflict is still a common feature on commemorative coins today, with recent events such as the fiftieth anniversary of the D-Day landings featuring on a 50p in 1994. Pictured here is the original artwork by John Mills.

After the guns have fallen silent returning soldiers need to be re-employed, control over inflation often has to be re-established and the reputation of a currency sometimes rebuilt. In the first two decades of the twentieth century dramatic changes of regimes and the beginnings of empires came thick and fast. This silver half-rouble of 1924 was one of the first coins issued by the Soviet Union.