'That Alien, New-fangled, Thick, Intractable Dodecagon': The Design and Introduction of the 1937 British Threepenny Coin

In March 2014, the Royal Mint announced plans for the introduction in 2017 of a new £1 coin that would blend cutting-edge technology with a nod to Britain's numismatic heritage. The new coin would combine modern anti-counterfeiting features with a twelve-sided design that paid 'a fitting tribute to the past' by self-consciously echoing the shape of a threepenny piece that had ceased to be legal tender following Britain's adoption of a decimal system of currency in 1971 (Fig. 1). The return of a dodecagonal shape was given a positive press, with a Treasury description of 'the iconic threepenny bit' speaking to a residual memory of, and even affection for, this coin.¹ However, lost amidst the nostalgia was the fact that on its initial issue in 1937, the twelve-sided threepenny was not universally welcomed. Popular resistance to the coin tended to focus on its un-circular shape, its uncommon thickness, and its unusual colour (it was produced from an alloy that gave it a distinctive 'yellow' appearance).² All in all, the design of the coin was considered by many Britons to contain too much that was too novel, and in early 1940 one disgruntled poet informed the Manchester Guardian that 'I would not fritter breath / Upon that alien, new-fangled, thick / Intractable dodecagon'.³

That a coin provoked such a response is not surprising to anybody who remembers the reactions of some Britons to the 'threat' of the Euro in the late 1990s, the introduction of the pound coin and the phasing out of the pound note (in England, at least) in the 1980s, the introduction of a smaller 5p. coin in 1990, or the vicious opposition to a recent campaign to see more female faces on British banknotes. Money, in its physical form, functions as a national symbol and is frequently associated with sovereignty and identity, meaning that consumers do not view money as neutrals, or in a dispassionate manner. Cash money matters, and people develop strong feelings about it. In part, this is because they can actually feel it: cash (and coins especially) offers scope for a tactile experience, and it is the solidity of a coin, its physical reality, that supports the weight of all the financial abstractions that are placed upon it. A pound coin is worth a pound not because it is made from materials that are worth a pound, but because both parties to a transaction agree that it is worth a pound. And shopkeeper and consumer are able to agree on the value of the token because they both recognize it as a pound coin – the design of a coin is integral to its utility.

Fig 1.

Reverse of the 1937 George VI twelve-sided threepenny coin, featuring 'thrift' design by Percy Metcalfe.

Fig 2.

Reverse of the 1937 George VI circular threepenny coin, featuring 'shield and rose' design by George Kruger Gray.

Fig 3.

Plaster model of the reverse of a twelve-sided scalloped threepenny coin, featuring 'thrift' design by Madge Kitchener (July 1936).

Fig 4.

Trial die of a twenty-sided scalloped threepenny coin (1936). Although the coin was struck after the accession of Edward VIII, its obverse bears the image of George V.

This article will investigate the genesis of the twelve-sided threepenny, explaining the reasons for the coin's introduction, outlining how it was designed, analysing its relation to George VI's unexpected accession to the British throne, and ascertaining the methods used by the Mint both to increase the circulation of this most unusual of coins, and to foster public affection for it. Whilst the paper focuses on the dodecagonal threepenny, made legal tender by way of a royal proclamation dated 18 March 1937, its conclusions might be used to think more widely about how people think and feel about money as a physical object...