Coinage Act 1816

Act of Parliament
	Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to provide for a New Silver Coinage, and to regulate the Currency of the Gold and Silver Coin of this Realm.
Citation	56 Geo. 3. c. 68
Territorial extent	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Dates
Royal assent	22 June 1816
Other legislation
Repealed by	Coinage Act 1870
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Coinage Act 1816 (56 Geo. 3. c. 68), also known as the Coin Act 1816 or Liverpool's Act,^[1] defined the value of the pound sterling relative to gold. One troy pound of standard (22-carat) gold was defined as equivalent to £46 14s 6d.,^[2] i.e. 44½ guineas, the guinea having been fixed in December 1717 at £1 1s exactly. According to its preamble, the purposes of the Act were to:

prohibit the use of silver coins (which would now be of reduced weight, 66 shillings rather than 62 shillings per troy pound), for transactions larger than 40s
establish a single gold standard for transactions of all sizes.^[3]

References

^ Sargent, Thomas J. (2002). The Big Problem of Small Change. Princeton University Press. p. 303.
^ Lisle, George (1906). "British Currency: Gold". Accounting in Theory and Practice. William Green & Sons. p. 277.
^ Scott, William Amasa (1903). "XV.2: Currency Reform in England and the Act of 1816". Money and Banking. Henry Holt and Company.