2 Pence - George III 2nd issue 'Cartwheel' (1797)

About the 1797 2 Pence - George III 2nd issue – 'Cartwheel'

The 1797 2 Pence - George III 2nd issue – 'Cartwheel' is a circulating 2 pence coin, struck in copper. It weighs 56.7g and measures 41mm across. Reverse design: Seated figure of Britannia facing left, trident in left hand, olive branch in raised right hand, shield bearing Union flag resting on left, sea behind with ship on left,.

722,100 were struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1869), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

By the 1790s Britain was desperately short of official small change, and copper tokens issued by private firms filled the gap. In 1797 the government gave Matthew Boulton a contract to strike copper pennies and twopences at his Soho Mint in Birmingham, the first official British coins struck by steam power. Wikipedia records that the contract was for 480 tonnes of pennies and 20 tonnes of twopences, and that the pennies were struck first.

A proclamation of 26 July 1797 made the coins legal tender for sums up to one shilling and fixed the twopence at two ounces, so that its copper plus workmanship would be worth its face value. The Royal Mint Museum believes approximately 720,000 twopences were issued, all dated 1797, against nearly 44 million pennies. It was the only copper twopence until decimalisation, and Clayton notes it proved too heavy for everyday use.

Both sides are the work of Conrad Heinrich Küchler, Boulton's German engraver. The obverse shows a laureate, draped bust of George III facing right, with Küchler's initial K on the lowest fold of the drapery. The reverse shows Britannia seated on a rock facing left, holding an olive branch and a trident, with a ship to the left and a shield bearing the Union flag. SOHO appears on the rock just below the shield.

The legends GEORGIUS III.D:G.REX and BRITANNIA 1797 are sunk into a broad raised rim, a feature meant to reduce wear and deter forgers, and the source of the nickname cartwheel. The coin measures 1.6 inches (41 mm) across, about 5 mm thick, with a plain edge.

Varieties and errors

Proofs were struck at Soho in copper and in bronzed copper, and the Royal Mint Museum holds examples of each. Clayton records many later strikes made by Boulton in a variety of metals, and restrikes by W. J. Taylor, who bought the dies in 1848; he suggests that die corrosion marks are the main way to recognise the later pieces.

Collecting notes

The weight of the coin makes it very prone to edge knocks, so check the rim closely, along with the incuse lettering. CoinVarieties notes it is the only copper twopence of the 18th century and that it was issued alongside the cartwheel penny. The Royal Mint Museum describes the twopence as not particularly hard to come by.

Proofs and later strikes are separate pieces from the circulating coin, and later restrikes are common enough that any proof should be checked against a reference such as Peck before it is accepted as an original Soho striking.