Since we were just talking about money, and we were just talking about the queen, I wanted to bring the two together. (Apart from Forbes' estimate of her personal worth at US$500 million.)
Maundy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter. It is the day of the Last Supper, and "Maundy" comes from the French "Mande" (meaning "command") which comes from the command given by Christ at the Last Supper, "Love one another as I have loved you.”
Since 1200, the monarch has traditionally given money to the poor on Maundy Thursday, which evolved into the Ceremony of the Royal Maundy where, since 1662, the Queen distributes money to deserving senior citizens, one man and one woman for each year of the sovereign's age. They receive ceremonial red and white purses -- one contains regular money, and the other contains a specially-minted set of pennies, one for each year of the sovereign's age.
As the Queen was 82 this Easter, she would have given 82 coins to 164 people, or just under 13,500 pennies. By comparison, the Royal Mint produced 7.82 million regular pennies. In addition, the Maundy money is actually made of sterling silver, and has the original Queen Elizabeth profile. (The money has been updated three times during the Queen's reign.) Now, I'm no numismatist, but I'd bet Maundy money is worth quite a bit more than face value.
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