This original Half-crown is from 1819, the year in which Queen Victoria was born. Queen Victoria’s father, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, was the fourth son of George III and she inherited the throne because her three uncles – George VI, Frederick Duke of York and William IV – had no legitimate children who survived.

Used continuously from the reign of Elizabeth I until 1971, when it was demonetised with the introduction of a decimal currency, the half-crown was the equivalent in value to 30 old pence or 2 Shillings and Sixpence.