Edward VII and loose change. Not.

[villa66]

I found something in my notebook that I had completely forgotten…

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x: Victoria’s death in 1901 made her son King Edward VII, about whom David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace wrote, in their book The People’s Almanac #3: “Edward VII...would allow no one who came into his presence to carry loose change, because the slightest jingling of coins unnerved him.” Sort of odd to think, then, that of all the places this worn 1906 penny went during its working life, one place it was practically guaranteed never to have gone was into the presence of the man who was pictured on its obverse. (93)

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[KarlAntonMartini]

Thank you for this story, I hadn't known this. British monarchs are certainly supposed to be a little eccentric. (Let's wait for Charles III. ...) Best regards, KarlAntonMartini

[villa66]

Charles III…I had never thought about the number that might attend him! Here’s one more on Edward VII. The reality of it must have really been something…..

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x: The Guinness Book of Records reports the longest rendering of a national anthem as having occurred the year this 1909 penny was coined. Edward VII—pictured on the obverse—was visiting abroad when a German military band at the Rathenau train station played “God Save the King” 16 or 17 times nonstop, trying to give him time to encase himself within a German Field Marshall's uniform. (03)

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[KarlAntonMartini]

Maybe the Guiness Book is wrong. The hymn of the "Deutsches Reich" was "Heil Dir im Siegerkranz" and used the same melody as "God save the King". In the first world war the Germans felt unhappy about it and discussed a new melody. The German Republic introduced under the social-democrat president Ebert a new text and a new melody taken from Haydn, but it was just recycled from the hymn used in Austria-Hungary before the war. "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" was now "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles!" (Today the third strophe has survived so far. I think the second one would reflect genderism better "Deutsche Frauen" and praise "deutschen Wein". But I'm afraid our progressive parties will miss a lot of other genders and denunciate the praise of "alcohol".) Anyway the text today is short enough and apt for the needs of soccer-players. Best regards, KarlAntonMartini

[villa66]

Danke, KAM, for the terrific answer. Sparked a lot of reading, and reminded me that another (unofficial) national anthem was using that same tune that same day in 1909: the U.S., for "My Country Tis of Thee."

The story of the 1922 German change in anthems is just full of interesting twists and turns--and seems to me not entirely dissimilar to the British royal family substituting "Windsor" for "Saxe-Coburg-Gotha."

Anyway, I feel like I dropped a line in the water and got something much bigger than I was expecting!

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