The Triple Unite, valued at sixty shillings, 60/- or three pounds, was the highest

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

denomination to be produced in the era of the

hammered coinage Hammered coinage is the most common form of coins produced since the invention of coins in the first millennium BC until the early modern period of c. the 15th–17th centuries, contrasting to the cast coinage and the later developed milled coi ...

. It was only produced during the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

, at King

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

's mints at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

(between 1642 and 1644) and, rarely, at Shrewsbury in 1642. It weighed 421 grains (27.3 grams, or just over seven-eighths of a

troy ounce Troy weight is a system of units of mass that originated in 15th-century England, and is primarily used in the precious metals industry. The troy weight units are the grain, the pennyweight (24 grains), the troy ounce (20 pennyweights), and th ...

). The gold coins are undoubtedly magnificent pieces of work, and they show the king holding a sword and an olive branch on the obverse, signifying his wish for peace rather than war. The extremely rare Shrewsbury-produced coin shows, on the obverse, a plume behind the kings' head surrounded by the legend CAROLUS DG MAG BRIT FRAN ET HIBER REX – ''Charles by the grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland''. The reverse shows the legend RELIG PROT LEG ANG LIBER PAR in three lines – ''The religion of the Protestants, the laws of England and the liberty of Parliament'', with three plumes and the value numeral III above the declaration and the year 1642 below it, the whole being surrounded by the legend EXURGAT DEUS DISSIPENTUR INIMICI ("Let God arise and His enemies be scattered", from

Psalm 68 Psalm 68 is the 68th psalm of the Book of Psalms, or Psalm 67 in Septuagint and Vulgate numbering. In the English of the King James Version it begins "Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered". In the Latin Vulgate version it begins "Exsurga ...

). The Oxford issues are very similar to the Shrewsbury one, except that the legend on the reverse appears in three lines rather than two, and the obverse legend appears as CAROLUS DG MAG BRIT FR ET HIB REX. Oxford coins appear with slight design differences in each year of 1642, 1643, and 1644.

External links

Triple Unite Sales Archive
– A gallery of Triple Unite pictures, varieties and values. {{DEFAULTSORT:Triple Unite (English Coin) Coins of England English gold coins English Civil War 1642 in England 1642 introductions