Gold changer

When the sovereign was a circulating coin, for many people it would have represented a sizeable amount of money. Access to some means of obtaining change for such a high value coin would, no doubt, have been of real benefit to many people. The machine illustrated here, which dates from the end of the nineteenth century, would have addressed this very issue by offering the facility of exchanging a single gold coin for its equivalent small change in silver.

Although its operation might have seemed basic, it did in fact check the weight, diameter and thickness of sovereigns and half-sovereigns, and would have probably been sophisticated enough to deter the unscrupulous. Being located in a hotel lobby or in a London club, likewise, might have prevented misuse. Precisely where it would have been housed, though, is a question that has puzzled those who have seen it in the Museum and to which we do not yet have a definite answer.