Suffragette-defaced penny

A History of the World in 100 Objects

BBC

History

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2010

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

Neil MacGregor's world history told through objects from the British Museum in London. The objects he has chosen this week have reflected on mass production and mass consumption in the 19th century. Today' he is with the first object from the 20th century, a coin that leads Neil to consider the rise of mass political engagement in Britain and the dramatic emergence of suffragette power. It's a penny coin from 1903 on which the image of King Edward V11 has been stamped with the words "Votes for Women". The programme explores the rise of women's suffrage and the implications of the notorious suffragette protests. The human rights lawyer and reformer Helena Kennedy and the artist Felicity Powell react to this defaced penny coin. Producer: Anthony Denselow

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of a history of the world in a hundred
0:07.3	objects from BBC Radio 4.
0:11.3	In this history of the world in a hundred objects, we've just reached the beginning of the
0:17.8	20th century, and until now we've been largely in a world of things that were made, commissioned and owned by men.
0:25.0	Today on the other hand, we've got an object designed to carry the image of a king,
0:29.6	but that's been appropriated by women, disfigured and overstamped with a slogan as an act of female
0:35.8	protest against the laws for the dawn is bringing.
0:48.0	March, march, swing you along, white clothes are back. The coin in this program in this program is a deft act of
0:58.0	the coin in this program is a deft act of civil disobedience and a brilliantly inventive piece of low budget popular propaganda.
1:06.6	It's a British penny with King Edward the 7th in elegant profile, but his image has been shockingly defaced in what was then a criminal act.
1:15.8	Stamped all over the King's head in crude capitals are the words,
1:19.8	votes for women. Women. March, many as far.
1:25.0	Shouldn't to shoulder and shoulder and hand to them. And then. To hold it gives you a sense of connection to the suffragettes. It's wonderful and
1:52.4	there's those things from history, those objects that just take us back to a period to a moment, to a wonderful imaginative way of making a political statement.
2:04.0	It's got a shock value.
2:05.0	It's got an incredible level of sophistication.
2:08.0	This is a really, really, to me, a really clever idea.
2:12.0	A history of the world in a hundred objects. Edward the seventh penny from Great Britain Britain.
2:33.0	Defaced by a suffragette in the early 20th century. This week's programmes have been about mass production and mass and America, the 19th century was punctuated by political protest, with periodic revolutions
3:05.7	on the continent, civil war in America, and in Britain the long steady struggle to widen the suffrage. This program's suffragette coin stands for
3:15.6	all those not only in Britain but across the world who in the 19th and 20th century
3:20.8	fought for the universal right to vote. Indeed many are still fighting.
	...

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