BRITAINS HEAVIEST PENNY : THE CARTWHEEL

PERIOD: 1797AD LOCATION: LINCOLNSHIRE, UK MATERIAL: COPPER ALLOY

The 18th Century saw many things for Britain, the new House of Hanover was in power, the Industrial Revolution had begun and by the time the 19th Century was rolling around Britain was a world power that was almost unrivalled. Only there was a huge problem occurring within its currency, one that would result in the creation of the largest and heaviest penny to ever be struck in Britain. 

As the Industrial Revolution brought in new technology, and transformed industry, it also encouraged a population explosion between 1750 and 1800 which put even more pressure on Britain’s currency, to provide for all the new wages that had been created. By the end of the century, around the 1790’s, Britain’s currency was in such a dire state that it was believed that as much as 2/3rds of the copper coins in circulation were forgeries and what little genuine coins were left were incredibly worn and often melted down to produce even more fakes. The state of Britain’s coinage was in a crisis, and the in-effectiveness of the Government and Royal Mint to fix it, wasn’t going unnoticed.

Only there was a huge problem occurring within its currency, one that would result in the creation of the largest and heaviest penny to ever be struck in Britain. 

Matthew Boulton was a British industrialist, businessman and inventor who had partnered with Scottish inventor James Watt to develop steam power. This was crucial to their invention of the steam-driven coin press, a press that was going to save the currency. By 1788 new steam-driven coin presses had been installed into Boulton’s Soho Manufactory in Birmingham and were striking up to 84 coins per minute, as well as producing high-quality coin blanks for mints across the world. 

Boulton was appalled at the poor state of British coinage at the time and practically made it his life's work to improve the standard. After 8 years of campaigning and convincing, he was eventually given the contract by the British Treasury, to produce a new penny for Britain, the first to be minted by steam power and one that would be quite unlike any that had come before. 

His idea was to produce a coin that was worth its exact value in copper and therefore restore the public’s faith back into the British currency, as well as being incredibly uneconomical to fake. This single penny was a 36mm beast that weighed a full ounce, complete with a thick border that was designed to reduce wear and soon earned them the title of ‘Cartwheel Penny’, their sheer size and broad rim likened to that of a cartwheel. 

And their sheer size wasn’t the only change that Boulton made to the humble penny either as Britannia was redesigned to reflect Britain’s supremacy over the seas, seating her on an island and grasping a trident with a warship sailing by in the background, significant at a time that would soon witness the Napoleonic War.

This single penny was a 36mm beast that weighed a full ounce, complete with a thick border that was designed to reduce wear and soon earned them the title of ‘Cartwheel Penny’

These Cartwheel Pennies were quite the experiment in British currency, one that produced a rather unique coin that was only struck under one year, 1797. And the experiment did work initially, these coins were actually very popular, and some even continued to circulate until 1860. However the experiment ultimately failed, as they were impractical, and when the price of copper rose many found themselves melted down suddenly worth much more than a penny, in 1806 Matthew Boulton found himself minting a much smaller and lighter coinage.

However the humble Cartwheel Penny isn’t just resigned as a numismatic curio for Britain, a failed attempt and desperate move to pull back the British currency from a worn and forged oblivion, as it is also Australia’s first ever penny. These cartwheels were the first coin to become official currency in New South Wales. Around 4 tons, or £550 worth, of Cartwheel pennies arrived in Sydney Cove in late 1800 AD, ready to relieve the shortage of coinage in the colonies, which was ultimately a result of westernisation changing society and creating a need to buy goods from trading ships. Only even in Australia the Cartwheel experiment failed and desperate to ensure that these beastly coins weren’t immediately traded back out of the colonies, a proclamation was issued that doubled their face value for use in trade within the colony and placed sanctions on their export out of it. 

A numismatic curio that contains many firsts, the first to be produced by steam power, the heaviest and largest penny of Britain, and Australia’s first ever penny. The 1797 Cartwheel Penny, we dread to think what it would have felt like to carry several of these in your pockets!