Jersey's currency system

[FosseWay]

OK, it's not news that before 1877 Jersey perversely had 13 pence to its shilling for historical reasons related to the rate of conversion with the French sou.

But well before the change to standard £sd -- and well before the issue of coppers actually denominated in 13ths of a shilling -- the States of Jersey issued 18d and 3s tokens (around 1811, IIRC). Now were the 18 pence tokens worth 1s 5d (18 pence) or 1s 6½d (half of 3 shillings) in Jersey currency? Or did Jersey officially use sterling, with 12 pence to the shilling, back then, so the Jersey 18 pence pieces were worth the same as the BoE 18 pence pieces?

And if the latter is the case, who decided that, when Jersey was to get its own small change in 1841, it would be a good idea to suddenly change to 13 pence to the shilling, and what were they smoking?

[translateltd]

As I understand it, the "shilling" was English, as were its silver subdivisions, so an English 6d would have circulated for sixpence-halfpenny Jersey on the island.  It was only the copper and bronze coins that reflected the actual value on Jersey, so - again in my understanding - the 3 shilling token would have been 39 pence Jersey and the 1/6d 19½ pence Jersey (shilling of 13d + 6½d).

We've had other threads on the relative values of pence in "other" parts of the British Isles in relation to the English shilling - it was 14d on the Isle of Man, and was it also 14 in Ireland in the early 19th century?

[FosseWay]

Ah, OK, that makes sense. It just seems slightly confusing to produce coins denominated in 'pence' when those 'pence' are different from the 'pence' generally in use. If I'd been the Treasurer of the States of Jersey I'd have made shillings, rather than 18 pence tokens.

Re Ireland: does this explain the slightly odd choice of 5d and 10d as denominations for the Irish bank tokens of the same period?

[Harald]

Until 1834 Jersey was using the French currency. Officially it was the Livre at 20 Sous, as the Franc had never been adopted. When the Sterling was introduced the rate was 26 livres to the pound. That's why the thirteenths of a shilling sterling made sense.

The tokens of 1812 were issued at a rate of 24 sous to the shilling.

Source: http://jerseycoins.com/acts/acts.htm

cheers
--
Harald

[Harald]

Re Ireland: does this explain the slightly odd choice of 5d and 10d as denominations for the Irish bank tokens of the same period?

In Ireland the shilling Sterling was also divided into thirteenths (not due to the relation to French currency, of course). The copper coins of 1822 were pennies Irish (not pennies Sterling), so you needed 13 to get a shilling Sterling.
The bank tokens of the early 19th century were produced from Spanish dollars at a rate of 6 shillings Irish, originally. Later on, the tokens were undervalued as 13 pieces of 5 pence Irish were produced from one dollar. The odd denomination were used to avoid confusion (and legal issues) with the English denominations.

cheers
--
Harald

[malj1]

I have mentioned elsewhere the Guernsey 6½d token the denomination based on 13 pence to the shilling.



Just to confuse things further we also have these Guernsey tokens Epicerie Francaise with French equivalents 25 to 1/- and 50 to 1/- as French currency was also current.

&

[translateltd]

Wow - so at various times in the 19th century you could have been dealing in 24ths, 25ths and 26ths of a shilling.  You'd have to define your terms before entering into any transaction, surely.

The clarification re the 1813 tokens is helpful, though again at the time it must have been very confusing.  If the 18 pence referred to was sterling, they must still have traded at 19½d Jersey.  I think I'm getting a headache.

[malj1]

The Jersey bank tokens of 1813 were struck by the Royal Mint yet curiously they did not copy the British bank tokens with the denomination '1/6d' but issued these as eighteen pence.