About this coin

Face value: one penny.
Collector value: maybe a quarter, American.

The first of my orphans to be left in the forest. This isn't a traveller or anything; it's yours to do with as you please.

If you look closely at the top of George's head and Britannia's left arm, it looks like this coin was silver plated at once, long enough ago that the plating has almost completely worn away. This would take away from its value to a coin collector (as small as that is).

Was this was part of necklace or bracelet? A good luck charm? Maybe 1913 was the birth year of the person who carried it. Or the marriage year. I wonder if it worked its way back into circulation once the plating wore off.

I've been carrying this one around with me lately, so it's chock full of fresh weasel. I'd enjoy hearing where it goes from here. I might even put your name or letter on this page (unless you ask me not to). Address it to coins@FieldNotebook.com.

History: bought (in a lot of 36 assorted coins) from a dealer in Florida. Left in the Iatoosh Cache in Massachusetts on July 17, 2004. Loved that cache.

George V phones home. On August the second, Larry writes: I now have this coin in Colorado. How did it get here? My fiance's parents found the coin in the geocache on Saturday. We live in Colorado but were back there for a wedding and staying at her parent's. They gave me the coin because they know I collect them. I mostly save US coins and don't have many old foreign coins, so this will probably sit in my collection until I either sell the entire thing or I put it in a geocache out here!

Thanks, Larry.

Inscription:

GEORGIVS V DEI GRA:BRITT:OMN:REX FID:DEF:IND:IMP:

Which, when translated out of British coin-speak short-hand Latin, means "George V King by the Grace of God, Defender of The Faith and Emperor of India."

That's a very neat trick. Using this clever system, we could say the Pledge of Allegiance like: PLG:FLG:USA RPB:ONE:GD:IND OMN:LIB:JST:YAY!

And the National Anthem would fit on the head of a pin! SEE FLAG? NOT ME!

Work this one out yourself: X.FST:BLT X.PWR:LOCO 1:JMP:BLDG LOOK!SPRMN

About George V:

George Frederick Ernest Albert Windsor (1865 - 1936) was the second son of Edward VII. His older brother Eddy, the heir to the throne, was a very dim lad, but he died before taking the throne, which was convenient for everyone (but Eddy, of course). He had been engaged to his second cousin once removed, Princess Mary of Teck, when he died. George took up the engagement and married his brother's fiancée the following year.

Actually, it was very much a love match. Go figure. They were terribly devoted to each other, writing several times a day on the rare occasions they were separated, and managed to make a life for themselves and their six children that was almost normal. You know, for a king and queen.

Queen Mary's mother, Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, was Queen Victoria's first cousin and a very popular royal. She was short and very fat and extravagant in her habits. She seemed happy to be called "Fat Mary" by the hoi polloi. "The mob like fat people," Victoria sniffed, apparently without irony.

WWI was a difficult issue for the Royal Family, since they were, by bloodline, more German than English. Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany, was George's first cousin Willy. To dispel the discomfort his subjects might feel about it, George changed both his personal surname and the name of his house to the English-sounding "Windsor."

What it was before is tricky. Royalty generally don't have or don't use last names, going by title or house name (there are so few of them, they don't run into questions like "Wait, are you talking about King Eustace III of Saxony Meyers or King Eustace III of Saxony Davis?"). The British royals had been from the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, which was neither English nor convenient for filling out forms. Queen Victoria commissioned a scholar to determine if she had a last name, as well. He thought so, and he thought it was "Wettin." But it's all Württemberg under the bridge now.

George's hobby was stamp collecting. This made the nation's intelligentsia roll their eyes, but it went a long way to popularize philately. I just had to say "philately."

George V died in 1936, after a reign of 26 years. He had been a steady, conscientious man and a popular king.

Queen Mary lived until 1953, long enough to see her granddaughter become queen. She was an imposing figure. It's said that the novelist E.M. Forster once bowed to a wedding cake, mistaking it for the queen.