With worldwide interest in Great Britain’s royal family over the decades and even centuries, it is no wonder that some of the coins reflecting those time periods are featured in Whitman Publishing’s 100 Greatest Modern World Coins. Authors Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker guide us along with coinage from a more recent period that some may know the story behind and some may not (depending on your watch history). Let's get into it.
#6 – Great Britain 1937 King Edward VIII Gold Sovereign
If we know anything about the British throne, a set of very strict aristocratic traditions and no tolerance policy on breaking social order is perhaps the greatest. In simplest terms, if you are born to the family, one must obey protocol. We have seen how that has played out in the most recent Royal family drama, but it played out long before now dating back to the early 1930s.
Reigning for just 326 days, King Edward VIII ascended to the throne after the death of his father, King George V. Before his father’s death, Prince Edward already had a knack for bucking tradition and causing concern for his father. In 1931, the young prince met Wallis Simpson, an American socialite who became his mistress despite her being married to her second husband. Their public affair became known in 1934 and caused strife for the royal family.
However, they would decide that they were to be married upon King George’s death and Prince Edward’s succession with Simpson ultimately divorcing her husband. This caused major issues. Not only socially was this unacceptable due to an American having the potential to the line to the throne, but religiously this was even more so against protocol. As the king, you are also deemed the supreme governor of the Church of England. As such, wedding a divorcee was not allowed for religious purposes.
With all of this coming to a head, King Edward VIII, who reigned from January 20th to December 11th, 1936, abdicated the throne before his official coronation ceremony. He announced this over the BBC airwaves, leading to his younger brother, King George VI, to be named his successor. Afterwards, Edward would eventually wed Simpson on June 3rd, 1937, and they were both named Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
As his short-lived reign came to an end, so did the possibility that coins featuring Edward VIII ever entered circulation. Adding to the fire, it was speculated that the coins that would feature him if he never abdicated would have his profile facing left (what he considered his best side). Of course, this little tidbit would have broken a 400-year-old numismatic tradition that stated that the new monarch would face the opposite direction of his predecessor. In order to compromise, the Royal Mint allowed Edward to model his left side but would reverse it for the coin so that it faced the correct way. This plan was rejected by the new king at the time.
Based on previous work honoring Prince Edward, his design for the coinage was done by English medalist Thomas Humphrey Paget. There were only ever a few sets of the 1937 Edward VIII coinage struck with the former king asking for one of them. The request was denied by his younger brother and the new king.
In addition, the Royal Mint also struck six gold sovereigns dated 1937 but was said to have hid the coins to avoid embarrassment. In 1970, Deputy Master of the Royal Mint Sir Jack Kames pulled the box of six coins from the safe and found an additional 43 other Edward VIII coins and patterns. The Royal Mint added this to their collection of coins featuring the abdicated king. The British Museum of London holds four of the six gold sovereigns with the fifth a part of a complete set of English sovereigns and the sixth in private hands.