mint_mark

That makes sense, otherwise you end up like the photography book I just read where the author spends half the text referring you to his other books! Very annoying...

Probably not. I have found 2008 old designs for all the coins except the 10p.

Hmmm... is this good indescribable or almost very nasty... can't decide Yeah, that works!

Hello, I think I've found your coin. It looks like it is from Augsburg. I found it in the Krause catalogue of German coins, type 189. Yours looks a little different but it could be how it has worn. The book says Augsburg was a free city until it became part of Bavaria in 1806 and the emblem on the coin is a pine cone.

I haven't seen the 50p either, but all the others (except the £1) I have also seen in the old design and dated 2008. Since they made both types in the year and all the obverses are different we should check them all just in case!

Happy New Year! Anyone seen any 2009 coins yet?

If you go to this Royal Mint page you can see that they have updated the issue figures for UK coins to 2007. This time the figures include breakdowns for each commemorative and normal issue for 50p and £2 coins... they never used to do this. I haven't studied them in detail yet but I did notice that some of the ordinary £2 coins were issued in relatively low numbers. It looks like the policy changed in 2005 to issue more commemorative £2 coins than ordinary coins. Before that it was more ordinary coins and fewer commemoratives.

I think it's all too common. Just from change in the last few years I've got 2, 5 and 10p coins with various blobs, usually on the portrait or under the truncation. I've also got what look like die cracks (from a letter to the edge of the coin) and generally soft looking strikes. I'm sure the mint would say if you want a well struck coin then buy a proof set Still no mule for me though... what does everyone else do? Go into a bank and ask for £10 of new 20ps?

I think the first obverse lettering (including two pounds) is normal for this type. All the other bi-metallic issues (except 1997) have the second lettering you mention. I think the reverse background should be rough. The orientation of the edge lettering is random, although you should check to see if it is the correct lettering for the type ("Am I not a man and a brother"). The simplest explanation is that one coin was made with the wrong obverse by mistake. A nice find! Mark

I collect coins from circulation and I was a little surprised to see any 2008 coins with the old design. So far I have found both designs of 1p and 5p and new designs of 2p and 10p. Now I know that both designs of 10p are out there. How scarce it is we will only find out in the future. I have noticed more manufacturing defects such as lumps and bubbles in the fields... they're not very well made :/

Interesting... I think my approach would be to work through Krause looking for everywhere that issued coins with (say) queen Victoria on them. What a collection that would be... I think it would include everything that could be called part of the empire.

The topic says it all really... the lower denominations have purity, sizes and weights for each section but the gold coins seem to just have the size mentioned in the introduction. Unless I've missed it of course. Would be a useful addition for the next edition, especially if gold keeps fluctuating.

When I first saw these I didn't like the fact that most of the designs were asymmetric, that is, I expected a design in the middle of the field, not hanging off the edge. I think I'm getting over that though and starting to notice little details. The coins that do have a field at the edge have no beading... just a smooth rim. On the 20p the design changes from raised to incuse at the edge of the coin... I like that. The 5p, if that background is not smooth then it will get filthy. You would think they could have found better parts of the design to include on the 20p and 1p, but then I suppose you would lose the jigsaw idea. I wonder why they bothered... with all the stories about 1p and 2p being worthless and how cash is falling out of use. They could have just left the coins alone until something else needed to change. Do you think we will still have commemorative 50p issues? And will the £1 stay the same for a few years?

I've just been examining some 2006 2p coins (from change) and found three with the same lines. At first I thought they were hairline scratches, but all three coins had the same features in the same places. There is a fine line from the base of the truncation to the rim and another from the F in F.D. out to the rim too, along with some other marks in common. I guess you expect these things in mass produced coins, but I've never found three the same before.

I just looked through my nice ones (all three of them) and they were all rounded. I did have one of each 1991 though and the rounded one is quite variable as you go round the coin. Some of the blocks were much squarer than others. Do you think this could happen if the coin is very slightly off centre when struck? I wonder if the variation is in the collar, the blanks or the striking (or something else)?

Hmmm, I was about to say that it's a five pointed star on Moroccan coins (and it often is), but then I found this link about the Seal of Solomon on Moroccan coins, which is quite interesting.

I noticed that the book didn't mention the enhanced effigy on 20p coins from 1992 onwards. Other than that, brilliant.

Everything you could ever want to know seems to be on Irish Coins. Loads of information in the modern coins section.

Hi Mark, I have one in my collection which I would have collected from circulation, so they do exist. A few years after that I gave up for a while, so I have some gaps in my collection too. I asked a dealer once if he had any loose decimal coins and got quite a strange look!

I often wondered whether some sort of interactive grading website would be good... maybe like a game or quiz. It could show you a coin, you select what grade you think it is, it tells you how you fit in with opinion so far (or expert opinion, or whatever). There could be a link to somewhere to write comments where people could discuss the grading. In fact, what I have described could probably be done with the voting mechanism on the forum, although it would get a bit cumbersome with a thread for each type of coin in each grade. Still, it could provide a useful resource for us all (especially for less common types) and it would be interesting to see the things that different people look for when grading.

If it was a finished 50p that went through the £2 press, then that might have squashed it back into an almost circular (and thinner) shape. Maybe it was then thin enough so that the parts of the die that form the outer ring didn't make contact with the metal except for those chain links, leaving the 50p legend to survive? Would you say it was thicker in the middle than round the edges? The problem with that theory is there seems a definite ring line on the coin which is outside where the £2 metals would change and seems to be the boundary between the two designs. Look at the line at 11 o'clock on the Brunel side going out to the rim... how could that have happened?

It is weird isn't it? The 50p stuff is underneath, so it might have been a 50p that went through the £2 machine afterwards, but wouldn't it be the 50p shape? And why has it only got the central part of the £2 design? Are the designs for £2 struck in two passes? It's not on a 10p blank is it? Then it would be a mixture of three coins!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4766897.stm "Please don't melt all the coins" say the Royal Mint

Does it have a spade shaped shield on the tails side? There were lots of brass tokens made with all sorts of words and letters round the edge. They were not forgeries, but made as gaming counters and designed to look like spade guineas of George III.

The design you describe sounds like a half crown of George III, from 1819. These coins did get counterfeited a bit, so it could be one of those. What sort of metal is it? Silver or brass?