service is insufficient, as far as the relevant Royal Household is
concerned. A Warrant may, however, be cancelled at any time and is
automatically reviewed if the grantee dies or leaves the business, or if
the firm goes bankrupt or is sold. There are rules to ensure that high
standards are maintained.
Since the Middle Ages, tradesmen who have acted as suppliers of goods and
services to the Sovereign have received formal recognition. In the
beginning, this patronage took the form of royal charters given
collectively to various guilds in trades and crafts which later became
known as livery companies. Over the centuries, the relationship between the
Crown and individual tradesmen was formalised by the issue of royal
warrants.
In the reign of Henry VIII, Thomas Hewytt was appointed to 'Serve the
Court with Swannes and Cranes and all kinds of Wildfoule'. A hard-working
Anne Harris was appointed as the 'King's Laundresse'. Elizabeth I's
household book listed, among other things, the Yeomen Purveyors of 'Veales,
Beeves & Muttons; Sea & Freshwater Fish'. In 1684 goods and services to the
Palace included a Haberdasher of Hats, a Watchmaker in Reversion, an
Operator for the Teeth and a Goffe-Club Maker. According to the Royal
Kalendar of 1789, a Pin Maker, a Mole Taker, a Card Maker and a Rat Catcher
are among other tradesmen appointed to the court. A notable omission was
the Bug Taker - at that time one of the busiest functionaries at court but
perhaps not one to be recorded in a Royal Kalendar. Records also show that
in 1776 Mr Savage Bear was 'Purveyor of Greens Fruits and Garden Things',
and that in 1820 Mr William Giblet was supplying meat to the table of
George IV.
Warrant holders today represent a large cross-section of British trade
and industry (there is a small number of foreign names), ranging from dry
cleaners to fishmongers, and from agricultural machinery to computer
software. A number of firms have a record of Royal Warrants reaching back
over more than 100 years. Warrant-holding firms do not provide their goods
or services free to the Royal households, and all transactions are
conducted on a strictly commercial basis. There are currently approximately
800 Royal Warrant holders, holding over 1,100 Royal Warrants between them
(some have more than one Royal Warrant).
On 25 May 1840, a gathering of 'Her Majesty's Tradesmen' held a
celebration in honour of Queen Victoria's birthday. They later decided to
make this an annual event and formed themselves for the purpose into an
association which eventually became known as the Royal Warrant Holders
Association.
The Association acts both in a supervisory role to ensure that the
standards of quality and reliability in their goods and services are
upheld, and as a channel of communication for its members in their dealings
with the various departments of the Royal Household. The Association
ensures that the Royal Warrant is not used by those not entitled and is
correctly applied by those who are.
BANK NOTES AND COINAGE
There are close ties - past and present - between the Monarchy and the
monetary system. They can be seen, for example, in the title of the 'Royal
Mint' and the representation of the monarch on all circulating British
coinage.
The first coins were struck in the British Isles 2000 years ago using
designs copied from Greek coins. Following the Roman invasion of Britain in
43 AD, the Roman coinage system was introduced. After the decline of Roman
power in Britain from the fifth century AD, the silver penny eventually
emerged as the dominant coin circulating in England but no standardized
system was yet in place.
In the eighth century, as strong kings emerged with power over more than
one region, they began to centralize the currency. Offa introduced a new
coinage in the form of the silver penny, which for centuries was to be the
basis of the English currency. Alfred introduced further changes by
authorising mints in the burhs he had founded. By 800 AD coins regularly
bore the names of the kings for whom they were struck. A natural
development was the representation of their own images on their coins.
Coinage played a part in spreading the fame of kings - the more often coins
passed through men's hands, and the further afield they were taken by
plunder or trade, the more famous their royal sponsors became. Athelstan
(d. 939) is the first English king to be shown on his coins wearing a crown
or circlet. For many people, the king's image on coins was the only
likeness of the monarch which they were likely to see in their lifetimes.
By the end of the tenth century the English monarchy had the most
sophisticated coinage system in western Europe. The system allowed kings to
exploit the wealth of a much enlarged kingdom and to raise the very large
sums of money which they had to use as bribes to limit the effect of the
Vikings' invasions at the end of the tenth century.
For five centuries in England, until 1280, silver pennies were the only
royal coins in circulation. Gradually a range of denominations began to
emerge, and by the mid fourteenth century a regular coinage of gold was
introduced. The gold sovereign came into existence in 1489 under King Henry
VII. Throughout this period, counterfeiting coinage was regarded as a grave
crime against the state amounting to high treason and was punishable by
death under an English statute of 1350. The crime was considered to be an
interference with the administration of government and the representation
of the monarch. Until the nineteenth century the Royal Mint was based at
the Tower of London, and for centuries was therefore under the direct
control of the monarch.
The English monarchy was the first monarchy in the British Isles to
introduce a coinage for practical and propaganda purposes. Only one early
Welsh king, Hywel Dda, minted a coin, though it may not have been produced
in Wales itself. The first Scottish king to issue a coinage was David I (d.
1153). Until the reign of Alexander III (1249-1286) Scottish coinage was
only issued sparingly. During the reign of Alexander III coins began to be
minted in much larger quantities, a result of increasing trade with Europe
and the importation of foreign silver.
After the death of Alexander III in 1289, Scotland fell into a long
period of internal strife and war with England. A nominal coinage was
issued under John Balliol c.1296 and then in reign of Robert the Bruce
(1306-1329), but the first substantial issue of coinage did not come until
the reign of David II (1329-1371). The accession by James VI to the English
throne in 1603 saw the fixing of value of the Scottish coinage to a ratio
of 1 / 12 with English coinage. After the Act of Union in 1707 unique
Scottish coinage came to an end. The last Scottish minted coins were the
sterling issues based on the English denominations that were issued until
1709 with the "E" mintmark for Edinburgh. Some British coinages have
featured Scottish devices, the Royal Arms of Scotland or the thistle emblem
during the 20th century, but these are a part of the coinage of the United
Kingdom, not unique to Scotland.
In the United Kingdom a streamlining of coinage production took place in
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Until the Restoration of Charles
II, coins were struck by hand. In 1816, there was a major change in the
British coinage, powered by the Industrial Revolution. The Royal Mint moved
from The Tower of London to new premises on nearby Tower Hill, and acquired
powerful new steam powered coining presses. Further changes took place in
the 1960s, when the Mint moved to modern premises at Llantrisant, near
Cardiff.
After over a thousand years and many changes in production techniques,
the monarch continues to be depicted on the obverse of modern UK coinage.
Certain traditions are observed in this representation. From the time of
Charles II onwards a tradition developed of successive monarchs being
represented on the coinage facing in the opposite direction to their
immediate predecessor. There was an exception to this in the brief reign of
Edward VIII, who liked portraits of himself facing to the left, even though
he should have faced to the right according to tradition. The designs for
proposed coins in the Mint collection show Edward VIII facing to the left.
The tradition has been restored since the reign of George VI.
During The Queen's reign there have been four representations of Her
Majesty on circulating coinage. The original coin portrait of Her Majesty
was by Mary Gillick and was adopted at the beginning of the reign in 1952.
The following effigy was by Arnold Machin OBE, RA, approved by the Queen in
1964. That portrait, which features the same tiara as the latest effigy,
was used on all the decimal coins from 1968. The next effigy was by Raphael
Maklouf FRSA and was adopted in 1985. The latest portrait was introduced in
1998 and is the work of Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS, FSNAD. In keeping with
tradition, the new portrait continues to show the Queen in profile facing
to the right. Her Majesty is wearing the tiara which she was given as a
wedding present by her grandmother Queen Mary.
Images of the monarch on bank notes are a much more recent invention.
Although bank notes began to be issued from the late seventeenth century,
they did not come to predominate over coins until the nineteenth century.
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