Nutsaboutcoins

I'm interested in knowing how people feel about coin clubs and numismatic societies. They seem to be in decline. Are you a member of a local society or national / international society, or do you only join online forums? If you are a member, what do you get out of your chosen society(s) If you are not a member of a society, is there a particular reason why not? Me I'm a member of my local society, The Tyneside NS, as well as a couple of online forums and a few facebook groups too. I have considered joining either BNS or RNS and even ANA, but I'm really not sure I would get anything out of it, so is it worth it for me? I love seeing / reading about things I know nothing about, and I'm always blown away at how generous everybody is with their time and knowledge. Monthly meetings keep my interest in numismatics simmering away as life can often get in the way and other interests can go off the boil for months if not years on end. Will the internet kill off societies? I hope not. Ian..

I'm really glad you enjoyed your evening and hope to see you back as often as you can make it. You will have to ask the wife for more pocket money, those prints might just make an appearance next month too Ian..

Thanks guys, I suppose it is obvious the more varieries documented in a denomination the more people are going to be interested in collecting them, and the more people collecting them the more varieties are identified, and so it grows. Thanks for the links David, I have read the thread on here bout the Portcullis varieties and was aware of the 2p varieties but had not found that thread, so thanks for that. I'm putting together a piece for my local coin club newsletter on decimal varieties, but maybe it will take another generation to really get into collecting them, as with a lot of things, what we currently use is mundane, what grandpa used is collectable. Ian..

I started collecting a bit of everything, now I'm trying to thin down what is more of an accumulation than a collection. If I was starting out again I would be more focused on a theme, but dont be to rigid, change direction if you really want to, as you could come across something that sparks an interest that you are unaware of at the moment.

Tyneside has around 25 members, with usually around 15-20 attending any evening. We struggle to get speakers, but I think meeting on a mid week evening makes it difficult for speakers to travel, we have an auction of members lots most meetings, which is well supported.

You are right 1949, you do have to get through all the things you are "not" interested in, at a coin club meeting, before getting to something you are interested in. The thing that makes the coin club meeting for me, is the monthly auction. Our monthly coin club has anywhere from 70 to 95 collectors in attendance, and a 100-150 lot auction, each month. If they didn't have the auction, the attendance would be much smaller! I find one of the benefits of attending a coin club is seeing and talking about new things I might not otherwise come across. The Tyneside Numismatic Society I attend has an auction each month too, but we could only dream of having 70 members and 100 lots, we also meet in a pub, so beer on tap and no draughty church hall for us

Welcome. Stop collecting is easy, I've done it thousands of times

You would be most welcome to come along and "try before you buy" so to speak, we are a friendly bunch. Our next meeting is the 14th October or any second Wednesday of the month. if you follow the link in my signature it will give you details, but please excuse the fact that the website is about a year out of date, the location and times are still correct. PM me if you want more details. Ian..

Good to hear your club is going strong. TNS has around 20 members about 15 regularly attending, but our average age is higher than I would like. Speakers are a problem for us as there are no other clubs close, and speakers willing to travel late on a school night are few & far between. If you are ever in the north east on the second Wednesday of the month you would be most welcome as a guest or speaker I hope the interweb becomes a complementary string to the clubs rather than a replacement, but worry younger collectors will join forums but not clubs.

I'd love to know the back story of coins like this, but we will never know.

Hi Hakan, It could have been used as a Tool Check, is there any engineering or mining in your area? AB could be the factory/mine or employee's initials 150 possibly his/her (it was during the war) clocking number. but probably impossible to trace where it came from.

Is “uncirculated” a grade or just a statement of the coins life so far? This is more relevant to modern coins than those collected by most on here, but some circulated coins have very little ware / damage so would grade high, where other so called uncirculated coins can have scratches, digs & edge knocks and would grade lower. And what does AUNC actually mean? Surely whether a coin was released into circulation is a binary question, either it was or it wasn’t, it can't be almost released into circulation. Some dealers seem to use UNC as a grade above EF, but I have seen foreign coin sets (one of my collecting areas) described as UNC that look as if they have been kept in a bag of hammers. Thoughts please? Ian..

Would they have circulated in England or would it only have been used in trade with the continent? I suspect a lot of foreign coinage would have ended up in the drink at all our major ports, one way or another.

My science might be a bit rusty, but wouldn't the limestone neutralise the acid?

Geek I am then.

I buy to the eye, so look and price / value for money are my main criteria. Unfortunately I have better taste than I can afford

Looks islamic to me, but I find trying to identify these coins really difficult I think the top line of your second image might be the date, but difficult to tell as it has a flat area. If I'm right about it being islamic then the date will be in the Hijri calendar 622 years short of the CE date.

Thanks for the debate guys, from what I see, before my spelling mistake took the tread into a nose dive , it means whatever the user wants it to mean.

USB Microscopes you can plug into a PC or laptop are reasonably cheep these days.

can I second Brian's sentiments. Not just with posts I have started but reading others. It is the generosity of people with their Time and knowledge to help others that makes this forum such a great place to visit. Thank you to all those who contribute.

If nothing else I think the SNP rise and LibDem fall at the General election and Corbin in the leadership race have given the old school tie brigade of all colours a kick in the proverbials, that has made them sit up and realise they are not immortal.

If the coin is on a white background you should be able to adjust the exposure on your SLR. I have read best results are from putting the coin on a light box, which totally eliminates any shadows created by the down lights, but this seems a bit OTT. I often add pictures into word documents and find white backgrounds give a cleaner look to the finished page.

To me it looks like the number has been added by machine press rather than hand punched, as the didgets on the thicker parts of the coin seem to be impressed the most, if hand stamped I would expect the didgets to be more iregular. I wonder if it was someone making themselves a make shift "tool chit"? My grandfather worked as an engineer in heavy engineering, he used to have a tool chit (I think he had more than one, as he was a senior engineer) used to collect tools from the tool store, they were about the size of a penny and were stammed with his works number. I wonder if someone lost theirs and made themselves a new one? I know mines used a similar system for taking lamps out, also used as a security check so they knew exactly who was undergrownd. Just a thought.

Sorry this is a bit of an off the wall question. Does anybody know if the rulings from the Trial of the Pyx are published? I'm trying to find out if the 2008 trial (or is it the 2009 trial that reports on 2008 coins?) mentioned the undated 20p mule. Presumably some of this batch of coins should have been included. Ian..

Thanks Rob. I'm no expert but my understanding is that coins from every batch minted go into the pyx, but they are then thinned out for the trial itself. I assume the results are published but I haven't found any links or libraries that have them available.