The Coinage Of George III

His 60-Year Reign Was Marked by Madness, Sporadic Coins.

- R.W. Julian

If someone had taken a public opinion poll in the summer of 1776 in what is now the United States, the list of “most disliked” undoubtedly would have been topped by King George III of Great Britain. 

Those who were in the process of rebelling against the Mother Country needed a convenient symbol of their grievances, and the king was an easy target. The grievances were real enough, but the king wasn’t really such an ogre.

The future King George III was born on June 4, 1738, the son of the Prince of Wales— Frederick Louis—and his wife, Princess Augusta. Frederick, the son of King George II (1727-1760), was unstable and a real thorn in his father’s side. The prince, however, died in March 1751 in a freak accident, after being struck in the head by a tennis ball. 

The new Prince of Wales was raised by his mother with the help of George II, who saw in his grandson the making of an intelligent king with the best interests of the nation at heart. In this view, the king was quite right, but young George had inherited his father’s tendency toward mental problems and these would plague him for many years.

George grew up as a very moral individual with strong religious feelings. In August 1761, he married Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and they had 15 children between 1762 and 1783, something of a record for a royal couple, considering that the majority of them lived beyond their childhoods.

IN LATE OCTOBER 1760, George II died; the new king, at the age of only 22, was now called George III.