Paddy

Nice collection! I don't believe any of the dates indicated are special. I used to find that silver threepences sold fairly steadily on the market stall at about £1 each, so that is a reasonable valuation for your records. As to whether to break them out into your collection or not, I can hardly advise! By the way, the Queen Mary box has value too. With none of the original contents they typically go £20 to £30 depending on condition.

With the Anne 1703 Fourpence I can give you a more up to date valuation. Prompted by your post and the reminder that it was one of the few dates I was still missing, I found one on Ebay and have bought it. I would say similar or very slightly better condition than yours and I paid £55 plus postage for it.

Here you go: https://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=475473#4232484

Book price in Fine is £25 (Spink 2024), but I suspect it would make a bit more in the current market. Maybe £40?

A similar (the same?) coin is being discussed on the coincommunity.com forum at the moment.

For @Citizen H, Yes, it looks like there are problems with a number of the letters on the 1776 twopence, but that is not scarce for that era. Interesting, but not changing the value enormously. For @DaveG38- Does your 20 missing include 1 and 2 pence coins? I left those out - they are so small they drive me up the wall! I only went for the 3 and 4 pence coins - missing both the 1765s, which are always very scarce, the 1792 3 pence (wire money), and then for some reason 1743 and 1703 4 pence. I haven't searched for these for years, maybe I should have another look. For @Mr T, I agree on patience. I got the majority of my collection through serendipity rather than great expense. Many came to me when I was dealing as part of bundles offered to me for sale in the markets, or in response to general newspaper adverts. These days too many people are internet savvy and so these bargains don't happen much anymore. Recently I have had to lay out more serious money to fill the remaining gaps!

Hi H, I am not sure any of those three would really be classified as Maundy money. The 1838 twopence is one of two years in Victoria's reign when twopences were issued for general circulation, mostly in the colonies. (The other is 1848.) For the other two, prior to 1797 pennies, twopences, threepences and fourpences were issued in silver for general circulation. The designs were the same for the Maundy coins, but the latter were generally of a higher standard. The circulation coins turn up generally well worn from day to day usage. The middle twopence is George III so the date must be 1776, not 1716. Still very nice coins to have in your collection. Because these smaller coins are generally much cheaper than the larger silver coins of the same era, they make great collections. I set about trying to get all the dates for threepences and fourpences pre 1797 and have achieved all but 5 back to 1670. One is actually the 1703 fourpence you have!

That's a very nice three halfpence (usually pronounced three ha'pence). I love these tiny coins and have managed to get all the dates eventually. (1837 is the trickiest I seem to remember.) Although technically colonial, they were legal tender in the UK.

Sadly in that condition they are probably no better than scrap as pretty common. There are collectors for them even in this grade as they are an easy target for beginners and date run people, but still only change hands at scrap money. Just to point out though, these are not "Maundy" coins - they are circulation silver threepences. Maundy coins of the same denomination were and still are made, but they are usually proof or proof like, and may have other subtle differences from the circulation versions.

Hi H, The second 1889 is a double florin, which is why it is a little smaller. You are not the first to be confused by them. They were only issued 1887 to 1890 and became nicknamed "The Barmaid's ruin" because of the number of times they were mistaken for a Crown and so the wrong change given. They are not rare and a bit of a niche collectors area, being so few dates to go for. There are a few minor varieties, mostly to do with the font of the date. Because of this I would say yours is worth £20 to £30.

... and the very clear triangle mintmark on the Charles I sixpence dates it to 1639/1640, minted at the Tower under the king's control.

Hammered is not really my best subject, but the top one is Elizabeth I of England, not James VI of Scotland. Others will be better than me on the denominations. The 1758 coin is a sixpence I believe. That and the shilling of the same date are probably the easiest of the George II silver coins to get hold of. Yours is a decent example.

If you missed the first episode of the new Digging for Britain series on BBC 2 this evening, 7th Jan 2025, it is worth catching up with it on I Player. They show the Suffolk hoard of Harold I, Harthcanute and Edward the Confessor in much better detail than they usually do with coins. The penny that they can track as minted in Eastcheap London is particularly interesting, and they say unique. Here is the BBC news report on the same hoard: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9wl9re5j1qo

My misconfabulation - Alice Roberts!

Very nice, and I hope you have fun finding out what family it comes from! Not my area, but I had a friend who was much into these (sadly recently passed), so I was involved occasionally helping him ID these. A few thoughts: I think the animals may be Ermine in heraldic terms, so "3 Ermine left" or "3 ermine sinister" may feature in the description. The divider is known as a "Bend" It is possible this one is for a lady, because of the floral surround. The gentleman would usually have a shield. Looks to be 18th or 19th century.

I agree, Alice Walker is also an attraction, though Lucy Worsley on Friday is slightly more to my taste!

Welcome H, always good to have new members. Sorry to hear of your medical episode and I hope things are not too bad for you now. We look forward to seeing your coins or answering your questions. P

I understood that Ebay is already reporting trading figures, private and business, to HMRC. So if one tried to hide as a private seller whilst doing too much business, they would soon be onto you. Of course the unscrupulous just have multiple private accounts to hide their totals.

This article on the long pointed shoes, or Poulaines, worn in medieval times is very well and amusingly written. Worth a diversion from more serious matters: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9vnl1evdkko

I have had one back saying "We are looking into it".

OK, thanks. Now reported.

I have forgotten who, but haven't we an Ebay executive on here somewhere now? I can't even find a mechanism for reporting fraudulent listings on Ebay anymore. Have they removed it completely? Clearly they are not at all interested in preventing fraud.

This has now been taken down after I had a long message conversation with the seller through Ebay. The seller says they have a number of interesting sounding pennies that they want to share/discuss/sell and I have suggested they come to this forum as there are better experts here than anywhere else! Hopefully they turn up here soon.

I would agree that there seems to be a lot of metal there. @fluffy998 if you can weigh it we could compare to an unadulterated halfpenny. I still can't work out what it was done for. It looks like a wheel for some toy, but then you would expect and axle hole in the centre.

It appears to have started life as a halfpenny from the 1770s, whether regal or a contemporary counterfeit is difficult to tell with the level of wear. I has been machined to create the raised rim on both sides. I have seen this done before to create a ferrule for the end of a walking stick, but these are usually deeper and one sided. Not quite sure what purpose this one was created for - possibly to fit on the base of a chair leg?