Red Riley

It's probably because somebody in government would have to tell her ('er... excuse me your majesty, do you mind if we replace your head on the 10p piece with a hippopotamus...?'), and politicians being the chickens they are, nobody wants to volunteer for the job. Reminds me of the piece of legislation in the 19th century which outlawed male homosexuality. It was easy enough mentioning this to Queen Victoria because the subject was covered in the bible. However, lesbianism never became illegal apparently because nobody wanted to explain it to her!

I am far from this country's biggest flag waver, but somehow I have retained the notion that a coinage works best when it reflects a country's history, heritage, legends etc. in a simple and easy to understand form. I suppose it is difficult to argue that the heraldic symbols on most of our coinage are well understood, but Britannia is recognised as a symbol of these islands throughout the world. Since the cartwheel coinage of 1797, a new version of Britannia has appeared roughly every 25 years, so we are overdue a redesign, but to lose this nigh on 2,000 year old image altogether strikes me as a shame. By comparison, the French Marianne, as close to an equivalent as one can get, has even survived the switch to a single European currency. Now it wouldn't be like me to post something on here without a hint of controversy now would it, but I just happen to believe that our coinage is blighted by having to have a portrait of the reigning monarch on the obverse. On a personal level, I really don't wish Elizabeth Windsor or her family any ill will, but can't we have something/someone else for a change? And no, I do not want a portrait of Gordon Brown instead!

Yes and no. I agree with you over the appalling Daily Mail, but I just happen to like Britannia. In fact, it's the only one of the current designs I would like to keep. Mind you if Scotland secedes from the union (as it surely will one day not that far away), the thing will probably die a natural death anyway. I don't see much point in hastening its end.

Surely there's something that can be done about this shower, they are unashamedly masquerading as part of the Royal Mint, and thereby giving the appearance of official sanction, at least to the uninitiated. Perhaps we should have a word with Watchdog.

It just looks like the die has had the 2 repunched. Whilst these are interesting, they do happen on any number of coins and are not usually valuable. I am prepared to be proved wrong though!

Hi Silver, welcome to our humble abode. The 1926 penny could be pretty scarce as they come in two different varieties, one fairly common, the other not so. Very difficult to describe without another coin for comparison, so a picture of the obverse (heads) side would help. There is also a ludicrously rare variety of 1922 penny with a slightly different reverse, but the chances of finding that are slim to zero.

I never really intended to accumulate odd coins in the way you mention in Example 2 but somehow or another, when elderly relatives have died and their belongings divied up, I seem to end up with a small bag of circulated change from the 1960s. No value at all, but when you get known as a coin collector, all sorts of junk seems to head your way. One of these, emenating from an aunt of my wife was highly individual. The bag consisted of maybe 60 items of which approximately 30 were 1937 pennies, all well used, and nothing special about any of them. The chances of this being a purely random event are millions to one, so there must have been a reason why Aunt Rachel specialised in tatty 1937 pennies. I'm blessed if I can see it though.

There are a multitude of varieties in these two years, some of which are extremely subtle and impossible to judge below say, VF so if the coins are in poor condition, you may never know! If the coins are at all photographable, you can post them up here and we'll see what we can do. That really is a magnificent sixpence by the way; in fact, so good that Spink's doesn't even give a price for it.

Actually you're probably right, all the 'buyer' ever seems to have been involved with before was selling secondhand computer games or some such nonsense. I hope no poor innocent got stung.

Yeah, I'll go along with that, the obverse if anything looks even worse. Chris, non comprong. You'll have to explain Shill Bidding to me. I think as we both know, there are a lot of people in need of the grading guide.

Come on, where is everybody? Happy New Year!

I have to say, I rather envy you Americans your current coinage as it has been stable for many a long year, whereas the oldest coin you can get in the UK is 1971 and even those are becoming scarce. Obviously Europe is even worse. As a kid there was nothing like the thrill of digging through a bank bag full of coins and finding something from the rein of either Victoria or Edward VII, a pleasure that almost nobody under the age of fifty has experienced. May well be heading off to see friends in Pensacola some time soon, so would be useful to know what theoretically I could find in my change. No rush you understand!

I think this is Sue of Ye Ole Banknote Shop. Never met her and didn't know she was a member, but very helpful in letting me use images for the grading guide.

I guess part of the answer lies in whether the coins are still capable of circulation. Are shield nickels the same size and weight as the current issue, and have they specifically been declared by Congress as non-legal currency? In Britain, the old size 5 and 10p pieces have specifically been de-monetised and by my reckoning there should be no reason why they couldn't be melted. Even if it were technically illegal, it strikes me as a victimless crime and as such it is unlikely that any charges would ever be brought. Incidentally, put a bit of iron into the mix and you get cunifer - strong, flexible and resistant to corrosion; frequently used in motor vehicle brake pipes. Not a lot of people know that!

Silver from 1816 up to 1919/20 (depends on denomination) was sterling i.e. 0.925 silver. From 1920 to 1946 the silver content was reduced to 0.500 and from 1947 the 'silver' coins were all cupro-nickel (except Maundy issues). Prior to 1816 the silver content varied but latterly sterling prevailed. Therefore, anything you dig up prior to 1947, however manky, will have some silver content and therefore some value. Forgeries do exist, but they are not as common as might be supposed and virtually everything you discover will be the real McCoy.

Welcome to the gang. Your story pretty much mirrors mine; kids and coins don't make a good partnership!

Never mind Peter, you can take her out and stuff her when you feel better!

Not quite Christmas day yet, but since I'm just about to retire for the night, a Merry Christmas to one and all.

I was intending to refrain from commenting on gradings, at least until the book was published but this looks very close to EF in my opinion. Reverse - a little discernable wear on helmet and right breast, but the shoulder which usually receives wear early on looks pretty good to me. The give away as far as wear is concerned is, as you say, the fingers of the left hand which nonetheless are still clear and individual (I reckon that 9 out of 10 coins advertised as AU or UNC also show slight wear here). An oddity though is that the left forearm seems to be a little flattened which giving the generally light erosion elsewhere is probably a striking anomaly. Incidentally, the beading on these very early KG5 pennies was almost non-existent, so you are lucky to have anything there at all! Obverse - the photo is a little fuzzy but it is possible to discern wear on the upper ear and possibly on the eyebrow. Despite the slight ghosting, the pennies produced in the years immediately preceding the First World War were generally pretty well struck and this is no exception. All in all, I would say a reasonable investment for 99p.

I agree with Chris. This is what I would call a wacking great error, not just one letter inserted over another which is barely discernable, but an error brought about by the illiteracy of most of the mint's then employees. Suggest it should go to a major auction house (perhaps even Spinks' themselves) who would give it maximum pre-sale publicity. You might just make a profit on this one!

Well my 26 ME is 'I' to gap and ordinary effigy is 'I' to tooth. Not certain whether that helps or not.

I have an idea that launching and running a magazine is unbelievably complicated, risky and moreover extremely hard work. One of my other hobbies is classic cars which I have had some involvement with since 1988. In that time I have seen a number of magazines arrive, fade, close, get taken over and absorbed into larger publications. A particular case in point was one in which all articles were written by owners with very little editorial input (Real Classics I think it was called). Sounded a good idea on paper because using essentially amateur contributors would cut overheads to a minimum. It briefly made the shelves of W H Smith's, but it seems that they failed to renew the order and in a year or so, it was dead. Publishing books is risky enough, but succesfully launching a periodical must be a zillion times more so.

It wasn't so much of a throw-away line as it looked. I would buy Coin Monthly in the late sixties, early seventies and then when I got round (could afford) to collect again in the nineties, it had vanished. Just out of interest's sake, does anyone remember what happened to it, when it hit the buffers etc. Used to be a good read as I recall.

Knowing me, I would just have to try and improve it, I just couldn't live with a coin in that condition and the fact that it was so rare would annoy the hell out of me. I have a book entitled 'Cleaning and Restoring Coins and Artefacts' by Michael J Cuddeford. I have never found it that helpful in relation to copper/bronze restoration, but to be fair my goal has usually been restoration of tone rather than full restoration on the scale that you envisage. Borrow it if you like, read it and then make up your mind.

I agree with you Sergy. For me it just tries to cover too much ground. There must be room in the market for a magazine produced in Britain with the emphasis on old British coins. I know this sounds a little parochial, but it is where most of our interests lie. I seem to remember Coin Monthly (whatever happened to that) being far more my cup of tea. I just don't want to read about new issues of otherwise humdrum coins in 9 ct. gold issued by Brunei or wherever.