These coins were a departure from the usual St. George reverse, and as beautiful and as popular as Pistrucci’s design was (and is), the “Wreath” crown was a real favorite with Britons, who often called these coins “Christmas crowns.” Their holiday-like design is one obvious reason, of course, and another was the high demand for these coins as gifts at Christmastime.
Christmas of 1927 would have come to a United Kingdom that was still recovering from the late World War. Many of the young men and boys who got one of these “Christmas crowns” in their stockings were being reminded that it was their duty to make up for the lost promise of their fallen fathers, and to exert themselves on behalf of the Empire with a single-mindedness not usually demanded of peacetime generations.
In 1927 the Peace had not yet been gutted by the Great Depression, and the fatal mistakes of the 1930s were as yet still unmade. The future was still hidden from the children who were so busy, Christmas morning, admiring their shiny new silver crowns.
It makes the heart ache, thinking about them—at the end of those childhoods lay the year 1939.
But the heart can ache in several directions at once. There were Christmas coins in Germany too. The big new “Oak Tree” 5-mark had also debuted in 1927. In Germany too there were children admiring their shiny new silver that Christmas morning. And in Germany too, 1939 was only a dozen years away.
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