Gold Coin Changer
When the sovereign was a circulating coin, for many people it would have represented a sizeable amount of money and access to some means of obtaining change for such a high value coin would no doubt have been of real benefit. By offering the facility of exchanging a gold coin for small change in silver, the machine illustrated here, which dates from the end of the nineteenth century, would have addressed this very issue.
Although its operation might have seemed basic, it did in fact check the weight, diameter and thickness of sovereigns and half-sovereigns, and would have probably been sophisticated enough to deter the unscrupulous. Being located in a hotel lobby or in a London club might have also prevented its being misused but precisely where it would have been housed is a question that has puzzled those who have seen it in the Museum and for which there has not yet been a definite answer.