mint_mark

Hi there Penny Master I was born in Brentwood, but now I live in Southampton. Small world!! I started collecting after my dad showed me his old collection in a cardboard box... lots of WWII European zinc coins and a few older. Like you I collected whatever people gave me. I took a break for about 10 years and I've been back into it big time for about four years now. I collect almost anything, but with the aim of illustrating the history of places. So, things like occupations, economy issues in different metals, swiftly withdrawn designs are all really interesting. The different denominations are also part of the story.

This is where the confusion can creep in... Does unc mean never circulated? The coin has never been spent... Does unc mean no wear? All the detail is present and there is no flattening. Does unc mean perfect? The coin has no disfiguring marks at all. When I started I thought unc meant perfect. Then I found unc coins with bagmarks, toning, "cabinet friction" and, most disappointing for me, weak strikes and metal flaws. Now I believe the grade represents wear and you have to be aware of and look out for all the other features that may detract from or add to the appearance of a coin, all in your own opinion of course.

For a contrary view, I'm very happy with WH Smiths album pages and Stanley Gibbons before that. No greenness or other problems at all. I do repunch the holes so they fit in standard four ring binders... If Lighthouse or someone made a decent coin display and storage system with the same flexibility of arrangement that WH Smith offer then I'd consider it, but the interchangable horizontal strips are the best I've found so far. I know they have interchangeable vertical strips... maybe for my Chinese coins. To be honest, I think problems are more likely to be caused by environmental conditions... humidity, temperature and sunlight.

I collect coins to learn. When I sell on ebay there is no profit. In fact, it's an act of charitable giving on my part... usually to ebay :/ I'm not a tax advisor, but I believe capital gains only comes into play with a single disposal that results in a gain over the threshold limit, and the threshold is (around) 7000 pounds, so not a problem for most of us I should think. Note that is for a single item... it doesn't accumulate through the year, so lots of smaller items are not liable. If you buy and sell coins as a source of income, then income tax is payable. They have criteria for deciding whether you're running a business or not and I imagine that if they decide you are then it's hard to get out of it! I'm still not a tax advisor. This is a disclaimer. That was not tax advice.

If you wait a while you can buy five pound coins from the Royal Mint website for five pounds, and free delivery! For example, the latest highly collectable offering to celebrate the entente cordiale is available at face value. Entente cordiale... would be a good name for a fruit drink! Anyway, I wish they'd do the same with the two pound and fifty pence too...

Here's a page all about it... http://www.gold.org/jewellery/technology/alloys/ Fascinating, but it doesn't say which particular alloy the royal mint uses for gold coins.

Oh Chris Custard made some good posts... can he be resurrected? Go on... an appropriate gesture for Easter!

Well, it's long but narrow... the house is over 100 years old and next to a church, so you never know... although I suspect it's building debris from when someone had an extension built. Where in Germany are you Chris? Lot's of beer tops... in the south?

You know, some people would much prefer that map of Europe. Just think, more German seaside resorts and at last a proper Swiss navy!

OK, there's a section in Coin Yearbook. I tried to look up your notes and I think it says they're worth 8 pounds each. To be sure it would be helpful to know the signature of the chief cashier and the design of each note. Maybe you can tell I'm not a note collector

I found a 1930s Canadian cent in my garden whilst weeding... and, there's a mysterious lump in the grass. I'm going to excavate it in the Summer when Time Team do their big dig again...!

Actually their mothers were sisters, so that makes them blood first cousins. You're half right about the relationship by marriage though - Nicholas's wife was also George V's first cousin, so they were cousins by marriage as well. Blame Queen Victoria (and Christian IX of Denmark). Ahhhh that's it! I was looking for a relationship through Victoria and only found the marriage but I missed the mothers. Thank you for pointing that out.... they really were all in it together weren't they?

OK, I just checked and it looks like you are right Oli... it clearly says possession of a forged coin is an offence. Hmmmm, so where does that leave us then?

Not sure, but I think posession used to be. These days the offence is trying to knowingly "pass off" a forged coin as genuine. If you accidentally spend a forged coin and it is spotted then you haven't comitted an offence, but you still have to pay with real money. To avoid the situation you have to refuse a forged coin when it is offered to you... you can't take it back afterwards because you can't prove who gave you which coins. Hmm, I think that's the situation.... should go back to Coin Yearbook and check.

With his bushy beard! I always think his head is too big on those coins... Have you seen photos of him with George V? They look really alike, but I discovered that they are only related by marriage. Mind you, some German states kings had most impressive beards! Wilhemina looks good, but which portrait? I think the one with the long, slender neck... very elegant. Did you read that ex queen Juliana died only recently? As for critters... it's hard to think of anything (non-mythical) but birds. I already mentioned the Athenian owl in another thread. In a similar ancient vein I really like the celtic horses. More modern, I'd have to say the impressive antelopes and deer on Southern Rhodesia florins, South African crowns and Mauritius too (not sure of the denomination...) BTW, you can keep the Irish farmyard collection! Personally I love the Isle of Man cat coins, but of course I wouldn't be caught dead collecting them If I find a bargain one I buy it to give as a present...

Well, how about if we had old coins as part of the design, like the 1 euro from Greece? I really like the Athenian owl... Let's see, we could have George and the dragon, the royal arms.... or even long and short cross euros!

I was always disappointed at how poorly struck the 1953 coins seem to be

Well I am thinking about it... but you know, I don't really do commemoratives. It was all those frivolous new issues that drove me away from coin collecting for over 10 years and left me feeling ripped off by the mint. There's a new commemorative five pound coin out now to remember the entente cordiale (of all things! think of the trouble it caused!!)... should I buy it? Now, isn't a wreath crown just the 1930s version of that? A ploy by the mint to make money from collectors? I mean they weren't intended for circulation were they? So they're not real coins then... But then some of them obviously did circulate... so they are real coins and I need one! But then the modern rubbish could circulate too... I myself spent a two pound coin in 1986! HELP ME! Can't you see the dilemma? If I buy a wreath crown then I have to buy the entente cordiale too!!

Of course, the Scandinavians had monetary union back in the 1870s... all their coins were legal tender in each other's countries. And obviously there was a more or less completely unified European currency during the Roman empire... we'd only be going back to our roots When you think about it, if the UK had joined the euro in 2001 then our outgoing currency would have been one of the youngest... after all, we were quite happy to get rid of it in 1971!

I should think so... the royal mint would never miss a chance to make money. Germany currently issue gold commemorative coins denominated in euros. I wouldn't be surprised if we had sovereigns (tradition, remember the pound), britannias (patriotism) and new euros too!

OK, I looked at mine again, this time at 10x magnification (8x before). Paying special attention to the points you describe, I think you must have a weakly struck example. Those details are as clear on my 2004 as on my 2003. Having said that, I examined the obverses... my 2004 seems very weak compared to 2003. I know it's a well loved portrait round here In 2003 I can see definition in the individual curls of hair, but in 2004 it's all weak and blurs together... it looks like her majesty is wearing a head full of soap bubbles! Also, the tiara is just a jumble... *sigh*... just more evidence for my theory that they reduce the quality to make you buy the proofs and sets. PS Sylvester.... no.

Hi Geoff, You made me go and examine mine (also bought in a capsule from somewhere else, erm, in Wales) and here is what I can see from my examples... 2004 is about the same as 2003... possibly slightly weaker but I wouldn't say noticeably so. Both are hideously shiny and will show the slightest blemish so easily! If you would like me to take some close up pictures of specific areas of the design I can do that... 2001 is starting to tone nicely and looks a little sharper, but it could be because there is less reflection going on. 2000 is similar. 1982 is actually a different version of George and the Dragon! Mostly I noticed that the horses tail almost touches the sword on the ground in 1982 and there is less detail in the plumes on George's helmet. As for the 2002 shield reverse... maybe the word is homage... either that or parody

His website about Jersey coins is truly amazing... he researched original documents from the royal mint records to verify mintage numbers. That's where I went to learn about why Jersey started with 1/13th shilling coins and changed to 1/12th shilling. http://www.jerseycoins.com/ Well worth a visit!

OK then, maybe you can answer another question I have some Guernsey coins and they seem to be medal rotation in some years towards the end of the 19th century (1864, 1889, 1893) and coin rotation otherwise. Unfortunately I don't have a complete set of dates and none of my books mentions it. I don't have two denominations from the same year with different orientations... so the question is, is this a per year difference or can you get some years with both orientations? Also, was it a deliberate design change or an accident? I should point out that medal rotation is by no means universal around the world... up until they adopted the Euro the modern coins of Spain and Portugal were coin rotation, but even they changed their minds now and again over the years

I don't think there there is a technical reason... it must just be a matter of how the dies are mounted in the machine (is "press" the correct name?). If it was just up to the person fitting the dies then we'd see more variation, since any one issue uses several sets of dies. As well as up-up and up-down sometimes you get mistakes where the sides of a coin are rotated by an unusual amount (say 25 degrees) with respect to each other, and these are usually considered errors. I have an early 20th century Chinese coin like this, but with that issue spelling mistakes are common, so I imagine they just didn't bother about the alignment. For coins where they do bother, I think of the alignment as part of the design. Up-up is just a convention, like changing the direction of the monarch's head, but we didn't always do it that way.