For some reason, in 1797 they minted bronze* 2d, it was 2 3/4" across and about 1/4" thick, 'cartwheels'. Guess they had a problem with an surplus of copper. Used to have one.
* cartwheels were actually copper coins, not bronze ones.
The 'cartwheels' were produced in an effort to cut down on forgeries. Created using Matthew Boulton's steam presses in Birmingham, they were intended to be almost impossible for fakers to reproduce. The high intrinsic value of the material (
one ounce of copper for the penny, and two ounces of copper for the 2d) was also intended to dissuade forgers, since the market value of the copper one would need to use was approximately equivalent to the face value of each coin already,
i.e. they would need to spend the face value of coins they were faking in order to produce them!
The 2d cartwheels were actually produced for two years,
1797 and 1798, but the coins produced in the latter year were created using the same moulds, meaning that they too are dated 1797!
The coins were intended to replace silver twopences, which were produced as
standard circulating coins from 1660 through to the 1790s, and which had been faked heavily during the first half of George III's reign.
However, what actually happened was that the cartwheels proved unpopular with the public due to their extreme weight, while at the same time, the use of silver threepences increased dramatically, effectively rendering the need for a 2d coin obsolete. Indeed, there was a hiatus in the production of
any 2d coins whatsoever from 1800 through to 1816, with the silver twopennies struck from 1817 onwards being used primarily as presentation or maundy pieces, and no longer considered as standard circulating coins.
