Issue 12

Coin Collector

Everything you need to know about buying and selling coins

Coin Collector1 min read
Coin Collector
Associate Publisher: Matt Hill matthewh@warnersgroup.co.uk Tel: 0113 200 2912 Editor: Matt Hill Contributors: Murray Andrews, Jonathan Calloway, Lawrence Chard, Jeff Garrett, Rachel Hooper, Richard Kelleher, Adrian Marsden, Mike Roberts, Ema Sikic, R
Coin Collector2 min read
Welcome
Collecting coins can throw up all kinds of quirks and varieties that the less observant collector might miss. The recently issued ‘Team GB’ 50p is a good example. The coin features two dates (‘2020’ and ‘2021’) thanks to the postponement of the Tokyo
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Writing In This Issue
Dr Murray Andrews holds a PhD from the Institute of Archaeology, UCL. He specialises in the archaeology of the medieval economy, with a particular focus on the material culture of money. He currently works as a freelance numismatic specialist for arc
Coin Collector1 min read
Coin Collector Editorial Board
Jonathan Callaway is a Director of the International Bank Note Society Lawrence Chard Founder and Expert Numismatist, Speciality Sovereigns Elizabeth Cottam Specialist in Celtic coins and Director of Chris Rudd Ltd Jeff Garrett US coin dealer and boa
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Double Eagle Sells For $18.8 Million
The 1933 Double Eagle, described as ‘the most famous coin in the world’, has sold at auction in New York for $18,872,250 (approximately £13.3 million), breaking the record for the most expensive coin in the world. The ‘fabled and elusive’ 1933 Double
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TEAM GB 50p BECOMES ‘DUAL-DATED’ COIN
The Royal Mint has unveiled the official Team GB commemorative 50p, originally intended to be issued in 2020, to honour Britain’s athletes competing at this year’s Olympic Games. Available in Gold, Silver, Brilliant Uncirculated, and colour versions,
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Gold Coin Dates Back To Black Death
A rare Edward III gold coin, which is thought to have been lost in the aftermath of the Black Death, has been found by a metal detectorist in Norfolk. The 23-carat gold leopard was discovered with a 1351-52 Edward III gold noble, near Reepham, Norfol
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Australian Coin Breaks Record In Monaco
The recent auction at MDC Monaco featured an incredibly rare Australian £5 essay, described as a ‘museum piece’ and one of only seven minted, which fetched €800,000 (£685,350). The seventh numismatic sale at MDC Monaco featured an array of coins from
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In Brief
The next three women featured on coins as part of the US Mint’s ‘American Women Quarters’ series have been revealed, with Wilma Mankiller, Adelina Otero-Warren, and Anna May Wong set to be honoured, alongside author Maya Angelou and astronaut Dr Sall
Coin Collector3 min read
Jersey Heritage Buys ‘Lost’ Celtic Hoard
Jersey Heritage has purchased a large part of the Le Câtillon I hoard, discovered in the Island in 1957, and says it highlights the need for modern legislation to protect portable antiquities found in the Island. The new acquisition cost £38,000 and
Coin Collector2 min read
Ss Central America Gold Sets Records
The allure of coveted treasure from the fabled ‘Ship of Gold’, the SS Central America, resulted in record bids of up to eight times pre-sale estimates for 76 world gold coins in an auction recently conducted by Ira and Larry Goldberg in Los Angeles a
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Interview: Png President Richard Weaver
Richard Weaver is President of Delaware Valley Rare Coin Company in Broomall, Pennsylvania. He grew up in the coin business and began his full-time career in numismatics in 1983. Weaver is well known for his expertise in United States coinage and bul
Coin Collector3 min read
Auction Update
The recent sale at London Coins saw a variety of pieces and banknotes go under the hammer, including a Tower Mint under Parliament Crown of Charles I. The coin was described as having a ‘pleasing and even strike, the reverse in particular with much e
Coin Collector3 min read
Special Report: Dark Age Coinage At Spink
It is not often that such an august institution as The Times reports on a coin auction, but the Abramson collection caught the attention not only due to its scope, quality and scarcity, but also the opportunity for the rapidly growing aficionados of
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Latest Internet Auctions
SOLD FOR £959 France, 1 franc D-DAY 1993 gold coin FDC SOLD FOR £373 China, Xinjiang Province 1 silver dollar 1949 SOLD FOR £640 Finland, 500 EUR Duisenberg banknote 2002 UNC SOLD FOR £801 Gallic coin, Gold statere ‘Cenomans’ 2nd/1st century BC SOLD
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Rare Coin Market Booms
The past year and a half have been very difficult for most individuals on both side of the Atlantic. The daily routines we all took for granted were turned upside down. Meeting with friends and business associates was suddenly an online only experien
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Important Things To Know BEFORE YOU BUY RARE COINS
As we collectors know, the study of coins, tokens, medals and paper money provides hours of enjoyment and entertainment, offering educational experiences spanning a variety of subjects from history and geography to chemistry and economics. Many colle
Coin Collector1 min read
Professional Numismatists Guild
The USA-based Professional Numismatists Guild (www.PNGdealers.org) is a nonprofit organiSation founded in 1955 that today is composed of nearly 300 rare coin, bank note and bullion coin dealers who must adhere to a strict Code of Ethics in the buying
Coin Collector3 min read
The Euro… Love It Or Hate It, It’s Revolutionised Numismatics
For many years, the euro has been criticized. The common currency would merge debts, they said. Weak currencies like the Italian lira and the Greek drachma cannot work alongside the mighty German mark, some suggested. Silent disapproval even comes fr
Coin Collector4 min read
HISTORIC COINS OF King Charles I
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland. After his father inherited the English throne in
Coin Collector4 min read
The Times And Coins Of Alfred The Great
William Shakespeare might have had Alfred the Great in mind when he wrote that ‘some have greatness thrust upon them.’ During his early years Alfred seemed destined for an obscure monastic life of bookish learning rather than the sort of greatness br
Coin Collector4 min read
Consort Coins
When Prince Philip died, in April this year, he had the distinction of being the longest serving royal consort in British history. It’s a role that’s as historic as it is undefinable, changing to reflect the needs of every royal spouse, and each new
Coin Collector8 min read
Foreign Coins In Tudor England
Throughout the medieval period English kings presided over an unusually pure currency. On paper, England’s money consisted exclusively of English coins, bearing the names, titles, and symbols of English monarchs, and struck at English standards of we
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The Duplicate Egyptian Medal To General Sir Henry Macleod Leslie Rundle, Royal Artillery
The subject of this article, General Sir Leslie Rundle, was born in Devon in 1856 and commissioned into the Royal Artillery at the age of twenty. He served in the Zulu War of 1879 and the first Boer War of 1881, but it was in Egypt and the Sudan that
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Paying For Revolution
The French Revolution, like the American, was built on paper promises. The Estates-General printed interest-bearing paper bonds known as assignat which were backed against the sale of confiscated church and patrician lands. Initially conceived as a t
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In Brief
A new online database of German and Austrian public coin collections has been launched, offering collectors the chance to view details of some 90,000 coins. The new website (ikmk.net) is free to access and claims to be the biggest coin database in th
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Exhibition Preview a Numismatists’ Delight
Nero: the man behind the myth explores the story of Rome’s fifth emperor, informed by new research that challenges the accounts which shaped his legacy. As the exhibition reveals, ‘Nero the tyrant’, was largely a fabrication created fifty years after
Coin Collector8 min read
The Tetrici And The Downfall Of The Gallic Empire
Victorinus was killed at Cologne on the Rhine by a group of disaffected officers whose wives he had allegedly seduced or tried to seduce. Significantly, this does not seem to have been a political plot with the intention of replacing Victorinus with
Coin Collector5 min read
An A To Z Of Banknotes Of The World france
Paper money first made what turned out to be an inglorious debut in France in the early 18th century when John Law, a Scotsman with a flair for mathematics and a persuasive tongue, became Controller General of Finance. He is remembered for his disast
Coin Collector2 min read
Golden Greats
The young girl looks expectantly to the left; she wears an inconspicuous pearl necklace; the long hair is curled over her shoulder. At first glance, she looks like a normal child, but the image is to be found on a gold coin from the Netherlands and t
Coin Collector5 min read
Peculiar Prizes And Miscellaneous Medals
In previous articles we have examined medals awarded as prizes for attending school on a regular basis, and for academic and sporting prowess. These have commemorated an achievement by the recipients, acted as an incentive to perform well (particular
Coin Collector5 min read
THE COINS & TOKENS OF BRITANNIA
For the copper coinage of George IV, Britannia, for some reason was turned around to face right instead of left. The sea, waves and ship also disappeared, although the trident remained. On the ‘First Issue’ copper farthings, from 1821 to 1826, a lion
Coin Collector3 min read
Spelling Errors On Britannia Coins
You might be surprised to know that mints make spelling errors on coins, but it happens, and it used to be surprisingly common, writes Julianna Chard. Since the days when the first inscriptions (often called legends) appeared on coins, errors were bo
Coin Collector3 min read
THE TEAM GB 50p THE COIN COLLECTORS HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR
Back in 2020, collectors were delighted by the announcement of the new Team GB 50p, released as part of the Annual Coin Set, to celebrate Team GB’s participation in the upcoming Olympic Games. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic and the postpone
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How Much Are The Beatrix Potter 50p Coins Worth?
First issued in 2016, the Beatrix Potter 50p coins became hugely popular thanks to the subject – thousands of us grew up reading about the cheeky bunny and his friends – and the growing appeal of collecting 50p coins, sparked by the ambitious London
Coin Collector2 min read
New Coins
(www.perthmint.com) Dreaming Down Under – DingoDenomination: 50 centsMetal: 99.99% pure silverMintage: 5,000 Australian Wedge-tailed EagleDenomination: $500Metal: 99.99% pure goldMintage: 50 Notes: The coin’s ultra high relief reverse is minted on a
Coin Collector2 min read
Scarcity Index
There’s been lots of movement across all of our indexes, as new trends have been exposed and one particular coin has moved an impressive sixteen places! You can use the updated A-Z 10p, 50p and £2 indexes here to discover how sought-after the coins i
Coin Collector2 min read
Your Quick Guide To… THE DATELESS 20p
The 20p piece was introduced into general circulation in 1982. Unlike the more recent £2, 50p and 10p coins, the 20p has not featured any commemorative designs, but there are still varieties to look out for, most notable the ‘dateless 20p’. The redes
Coin Collector3 min read
Pilgrimage Pieces
For more than 400 years brave souls from every corner of Britain regularly set forth on journeys that might have taken them hundreds of miles from their homes in an age when travel beyond one’s own parish boundary seemed remarkable. Destinations incl

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