{"id":11082,"date":"2019-02-14T12:07:09","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T17:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/?p=11082"},"modified":"2026-01-24T17:26:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T17:26:02","slug":"florin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/?p=11082","title":{"rendered":"Find 19: A Florin’s a Florin!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n

\n

<\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

There is a specific weight to a florin that sets it apart from other coinage. Finding a British two-shilling coin\u2014the florin\u2014always feels like a significant discovery, partly because of its size and partly because of its long, steadfast history in British pockets. This particular example, a 1965 Elizabeth II florin, was won from the Wiltshire mud through a bit of stubbornness and a change of footwear.<\/p>\n

I found this coin while trying to negotiate an old wooden gateway into my West Grimstead permission without stepping into ankle-deep mud. In the middle of that delicate balancing act, I leaned my detector against the wooden gate to steady myself, and the machine let out a sharp, unmistakable “Zeep!” about three feet shy of the gate and dry land.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

At that moment, I was wearing old trainers that were already losing the battle against the muck. I had to hobble back to my car, swap them for a pair of calf-height wellies, and trudge back to the spot. Now more confident in my footing, I quickly relocated the signal. Common sense told me it would be a piece of gate hardware\u2014a bolt or a hinge fragment\u2014or at best a discarded pull-tab. Still, I couldn\u2019t walk away from it after going to all the trouble of changing my shoes, especially since the hunt hadn’t been going particularly well that day.<\/p>\n

What emerged from the sludge was not scrap, but a 1965 florin. Issued from 1849 until 1967, the florin was originally introduced as a step toward decimalisation, worth exactly one-tenth of a pound. By 1965, these coins were made of cupro-nickel (75% copper, 25% nickel), as the silver content had been removed from British coinage in 1947 to help pay off war debts [1].<\/p>\n

I have to admit, I’m slightly disappointed that it doesn’t actually say “Florin” on it, and a bit more disappointed that it’s not one of the silver ones, but a Florin’s a Florin!<\/p>\n

The obverse features the laureate head of Queen Elizabeth II by Mary Gillick, inscribed ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA<\/em>. The reverse is a mid-century masterpiece of heraldry, showing a crown at the centre of a ring of four heraldic plants: the Tudor rose, the thistle, the shamrock, and the leek, representing the four nations of the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

In 1968, as Britain prepared for decimalisation, the florin was superseded by the ten pence piece. Because they shared the same value, size, and weight, they co-existed in British change for decades. This 1965 survivor likely circulated alongside the new decimal coins for another quarter of a century. It wasn’t until 1993, when the 10p was reduced in size, that these old florins finally lost their status as legal tender.<\/p>\n

Holding this coin, I\u2019m struck by how much history it bridged. It fell into the soil at a literal and metaphorical gateway\u2014lost at the edge of a field and at the edge of Britain’s pre-decimal history. I can only imagine the person who lost it; they likely weren’t as successful as I was in skirting the mud and probably fell right in. They would have been far more concerned with being covered in muck than grubbing around in deep sludge for a dropped coin. It\u2019s a reminder that sometimes the signals we almost ignore, especially when we\u2019re cold and muddy, turn out to be the ones worth the extra effort.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong> [1] The Royal Mint, “History of the Florin,” royalmint.com.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  There is a specific weight to a florin that sets it apart from other coinage. Finding a British two-shilling coin\u2014the florin\u2014always feels like a significant discovery, partly because of its size and partly because of its long, steadfast history in British pockets. This particular example, a 1965 Elizabeth II florin, was won from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11488],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metal-detecting","has-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/EFFlorin1965.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sDxlf-florin","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11082"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14051,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11082\/revisions\/14051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}