Queen Victoria
Bronze
A rare fractional coin -- a fraction of a cent -- 400 to make just one single dollar!
Alexandrina Victoria was born in 1819 and was of almost entirely German descent. She was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Ireland on 28 June 1838. She became the first Empress of India of the British Raj in 1876. She died 1901.
Her reign as the Queen lasted 63 years and 7 months, longer than that of any other British monarch before or since. The period centered on her reign is known as the Victorian era, a time of industrial, political, scientific and military progress within the United Kingdom.
She was a very important symbolic figure of her time. Victoria's reign was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire -- during this period it reached its zenith, becoming the foremost global power of the time.
She reigned over 63 years of Britain's "imperial century" (the 100 years from 1815 to 1914) of Pax Britannica ("the British Peace"). During her "imperial century" Britain gained control over an additional 10,000,000 square miles (25,899,881 km²) of territory and roughly 400 million people. Unchallenged at sea, Britain adopted the role of global policeman. British imperial strength was underpinned by the steamship and the telegraph, new technologies invented in the second half of the 19th century, allowing it to control and defend the Empire.
Queen Victoria remains the most commemorated British monarch in history, with statues to her erected throughout the former territories of the British Empire. The Straits Settlements were territories of the British Empire.
The Straits Settlements were established in 1826 and became a British crown colony in 1867. The colony was dissolved in 1946.
The Straits Settlements consisted of the individual settlements of Malacca, Penang (also known as Prince of Wales Island), and Singapore, as well as (from 1907) Labuan.
Malacca, Penang and Labuan are now part of Malaysia.
Singapore became a sovereign nation in 1967.
