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RE: British Pence from Victoria to Elizabeth II (High Res)
I like numismatics. I find it odd that the UK uses portraits of the current monarch, and the US uses dead presidents. I know it's a tradition dating back to the ancient world to use money as imperial propaganda and promote reverence for the ruler, but in the US up until about a century ago it was a general policy to portray ideals rather than specific individuals, usually in the form of an Indian head or a liberty figure. It just creepy to turn coins into little religious icons for political purposes.
Yeah it is interesting. I think the monarchy and aristocracy in general was meant to be a living ideal as well, a symbol, though I'm not sure that people were or are supposed to strive for that ideal in terms of wealth or class, since we know that individual upward mobility was rare.
I actually find that many Americans practically worship those dead presidents and especially "The Founders" and their holy book The Constitution. Maybe the effect is pretty similar in terms of the propaganda element even when the people are long gone..
Our money here also has dead leaders, or "national heroes" who did something that people may want to use as inspiration. Not the coins, but the paper money.