Maundy Gifts
Maundy Gifts
At the ceremony the sovereign hands to each recipient two small leather string purses. One, a red purse, contains - in ordinary coinage - money in lieu of food and clothing; the other, a white purse, contains silver Maundy coins consisting of the same number of pence as the years of the sovereign's age.
Maundy money, as such, started in the reign of Charles II with an undated issue of hammered coins in 1662. The coins were a fourpenny, threepenny, twopenny and one penny piece but it was not until 1670 that a dated set of all four coins appeared.
Prior to this, ordinary coinage was used for Maundy gifts, silver pennies alone being used by the Tudors and Stuarts for the ceremony. In the eighteenth century the act of washing the feet of the poor by the Sovereign was discontinued and in the nineteenth century money allowances were substituted for the various gifts of food and clothing.
Maundy coins have remained in much the same form since 1670. They have traditionally been struck in sterling silver, except for the brief interruptions of Henry's Vlll's debasement of the coinage and the general change to 50% silver coins in 1920. The sterling silver standard was resumed following the Coinage Act of 1946.
In 1971, when decimalisation took place, the face values of the coins were increased from old to new pence. The effigy of The Queen on ordinary circulating coinage has undergone three changes, but Maundy coins still bear the same portrait of Her Majesty prepared by Mary Gillick for the first coins issued in the year of her coronation in 1953.
Being rare and crafted in silver, their real worth is far higher - the symbolic gifts are a great honour and highly prized by Maundy recipients so it is difficult to put an accurate price on them.
The Royal Mint details can be viewed here.
