Maundy money refers to the coins given to elderly people by the monarch in a ceremony that drew inspiration from the Bible when Jesus Christ washed the feet of his disciples on the day before Good Friday. The first Maundy money ceremony, where Maundy coins were specifically struck for the occasion, took place during the reign of Charles II, when the king gave people undated hammered coins in 1662 . The coins were a four penny, three penny, two penn y and one penny piece. In 1670, the king started giving out a dated set of all four coins.
Maundy money has remained much the same since 1670 and the coins are traditionally struck in sterling silver. A Maundy set still consists of four small silver coins but in 1971, at the time of decimalisation, the face values of the coins were changed from old to new pence.
Issued in 2006, the year in which Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 80th birthday, these coins feature Mary Gillick’s youthful portrait of the monarch on the obverse. The reverse depicts the crowned numeral almost encapsulated by a wreath, a design first used during the reign of William III and Mary II.
