Following the death of William III, Anne Stuart, daughter of James II, became queen from 1707 until 1714. She was the last Stuart monarch and ruled when England and Scotland united into a single kingdom in 1707. Queen Anne was therefore the first monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
Derived from a gold coin introduced by Henry VIII in 1526 to replace the sovereign, crowns have a long history. The composition of sovereigns from that period was deemed too soft, so hard-wearing ‘crown gold’ was introduced. This has been the standard of British gold coins ever since. In 1551, coins of the same size and weight, but made from silver, were brought in. They adopted the name crown from the gold version and became the sole carrier of the title after 1662, when gold crowns were no longer produced.