MAUNDY MONEY MUSINGS

Peddling Your Maundy Coins
There is much talk about the coins and even about the ceremony but little is ever said about how they get on the numismatic market.

A British coin dealer once told me that he has a representative stationed at the site of the ceremony who buys the coins immediately from the recipients. There were standing orders for the coins and they never did go home with many of the recipients.

That was decades ago, and one wonders if the procedure is much different these days.

Don't Clean Them
A good friend had cousins still living in Great Britain who had two early Maundy sets of four coins in their beautiful leather box cases. They had been handed down in the family. Knowing he was a collector they finally decided to send them over as a Christmas present one year. Sadly, they polished them up as they were toned from the years of storage.

And Don't be Too Tall
We once stayed in a British bed and breakfast on a self-drive vacation and our hostess was so proud of her son who had been selected to serve in the Maundy Ceremony that year. He and a girl classmate had represented all the Children in the United Kingdom, acting out their duties in the ceremony.

She related how they were selected on the basis of Scholarship, Citizenship, and recommended by their teachers and fellow students. The high point of their young lives. And she happened to mention that he was the right height!..

I just had to ask how his height had any bearing on his qualities of scholarship or citizenship?

She replied that tall children were not eligible to be considered for this honor, lest they loom above the Queen in the photos being taken!

Having once been a tall and gangly youngster, I felt so sorry for those being ruled-out of the event because of height. I'm sure the photos were neat and orderly regarding the posed participants.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
QUEEN ELIZABETH II DISTRIBUTES MAUNDY MONEY (https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n16a21.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web