old british coin

[Guest mac from canada]

A buddy in the pub today showed me a coin he was given as a child, it was very small, had the queen on the back was from 1860 and had 1 1/2 on the front. He also showed me another one that was british and had the star of david on it and a whole in the middle, it was british africa currency. I told him I would try and find out about them. can anyone tell me

[Chris Perkins 228]

The first is a 'One and a half pence' (or three-halfpence). Not worth a huge amount if in average condition. The 2nd is indeed British African, but without dates and more useful info I know as much as you do!

[Sylvester 15]

The Queen is on the front not the back, the Queen is always on the front.

[Chris Perkins 228]

The Australian that lives near me always refers to the Head side as the back. Isn't that the most illogical conclusion to come to, even if you know nothing about coins. (in my mind it is)

He and I were talking on the phone about a commemorative 1934 Melbourne Florin that I wanted to sell him...And he said 'You have to grade those by the front, because the Crown and head are always sharp as UNC'. It took me a while to work out exactly what he was talking about.

Mac, why did you call the head side, the back?

[Sylvester 15]

Well logic would tell you when flipping a coin that the heads side is the heads side and therefore the front cos the front is the most important and you sai it first, hence Heads and tails, not tails and heads!

The tails side is the back/reverse.

Simple i would have thought? No?

[kuhli 0]

I know that the side with the Queen/King is the "heads", and is the "obverse", but for me, I have always displayed my coins (in the 2X2 mylar flips in 20 pocket pages) with the dated side up. Since many of us collect series of coins by date, it would make sense to me to display the side with the date. (I know that with most of the decimal stuff, the date is on the "heads" side of the coin).

[Sylvester 15]

I store mine obverse up, that goes even for the date set.

I used to have them all obverse down (including coins where the date is on the obverse), but with the cabinet soft high relief coins can be slightly hairlined by the linings in the coin trays, so i keep the obverses up and the reverses down. The reverses are in lower relief and so it does not affect them at all.