fletch88

Hello to one and all. I'm new to this forum and joined up to share my recent acquisitions and to see if there is anyone out there who has similar interests as me. I'll start by saying this though - I am only really interested in coins that you could expect to find in your change. I've been collecting since around 2006, when my dad, myself and the local landlord raided all his change bags for a 1988 £1 and found just one. Add this to a few other rarities and we have a nice little collection going. (I had considered the username 'philistine' when I signed up, but I thought that would be pigeon-holing myself ) I couldn't help but noticing this forum tends to deal with pre-decimal coins and the sheer number out there baffles me, which is probably why I've never considered starting a collection of pre-1972 coins. Anyway, here is our little collection so far. Does anyone know whether they're worth much, if anything at all? - 10 x 1988 £1 coins. All in decent but 'circulated' condition - Full set of 2012 Olympic commemorative 50ps. Again in circulated condition - 1 x 1987 Falkland's £1 coin. Circulated condition, but I have heard they only minted 2,500 of these! - Kew Gardens 50p. Can't believe the recent hype there has been around these. Held on to it though, foolishly or not? - Every commemorative 50p coin since 1997, except for the 2013 Ironside one and the 2003 WSPU one. Finally, does anyone have any tips where would be the best place to start a casual collection of older coins? And I do mean Casual! All the best, F

Firstly, thank you all for your responses so far. It has shed a little bit more light on your world The 88 £1 coin thing has become a bit of an obsession over the last few years mainly due to their scarcity (not rarity, I gather!), the fact that the design is quite nice (probably the finest £1 coin design) and the fact it's my birth year. A vintage year indeed..... I suppose an Elizabeth II collection would be a good place to start. Do you guys recommend scouring eBay? I'll need to do my research of course, so thank you for the advice regarding Collectors books. I shall definitely have to take a look. For now, we'll start small. A collection of all the current £1 coins in circulation shouldn't take too long, and we'll kick off from there I guess. Looking forward to contributing to the community at some point in the future