Le 02/10/2011 08:31, mike cook a écrit :
Le 02/10/2011 07:57, mike cook a écrit :
The clock was made in 1854, though not installed and started in the
tower until 1859. In those days the penny was 18,8 grams, twice that
of the 1860 and latter pennies.
So I wonder which ones are currently in use? If the penny story is
true I would have thought that pennys available at the time of
testing and installation would still be there. The halfpenny of the
1825-1860 period was 9,3 grammes, so maybe the original weights were
halfpenny's and later swapped with 9.4g penny's.
Just located an article from Reuters dated November 2009,
150-year old pennies removed from London's Big Ben
...
Three of the 10 coins have now been replaced with a 5 pound crown --
produced as part of the Royal Mint's collection to celebrate the
London 2012 Olympics -- which features Big Ben's clock face.
But McCann will keep hold of the old pennies in case they need to be
returned to the pendulum at a future date."
So if Reuters can be believed, the penny's date from the time that
the clock was installed and are thus the 18,8g issue.
Further research shows that maybe Reuters ware wrong about the age of
the pennies:
I checked the weight of the £5 crown commemorative coin. There were 2
versions issued in 2009. One in gold with a weight of 39.94 grammes and
another in silver with a weight of 28,28grammes.
As the Reuters report states that three coins being changed , and
assuming that there was a relation between the weight of those removed
with the crown which was added, the best fit is that the penny's were
the 9.4g coins issue between 1860-1971
(3 x 9,4g = 28,2g).
From that, it look like Reuters were not correct about the coins
age... I know this will keep me awake, so I will try and contact Mike
McCann who is the clock keeper.
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