Poor Condition of Many Modern Decimal Coins

[kena 0]

All,

I know many people here are not really interested in modern UK decimal coins but I still enjoy the challenge of trying to find new releases in circulation than resorting to buying sets from the mint.

I am aware that these coins will probably never be worth much but the cost of such a collection is just face value of the coin and my time.

I moved from the US to the UK back in 1998. Maybe if I would have been arond when the previous non-decimal coins circulated, I would be more interested in them.

I would have expected that the modern UK decimal coins would be in much better condition than what I tend to find (especially the 1 pound coins....so many of them look so beat up).

When I lived in the US, you could go to the bank is obtain rolls of anything and since many of the coins from cents to halves have circulated for so long, you could find old stuff which sometimes was in good shape.

I have only seen the small plastic bags of change that the banks give our and surely that does not help the condition of the coins. How are larger amounts of coins stored by banks?

Comments?

Ken

[scott 129]

banks usualy store coins in trays, all lined up, then just put them in bags. you CAN find decent grade stuff. i have foound lustrous 80's stuff in the last few years

[scottishmoney 18]

The quid coins take a beating, and look the worse for it. But really I have found decent coins in change, well in Europe - but British coins all the while.

[scott 129]

nah i found a 1987 20p and a 1987 quid recently in VF+ but yea quids are appauling for wear

[ken46 0]

Ken,

I love your coin but the 9 is way to big.

Ken

[1949threepence 3,366]

Sorry to bump this old thread, but I noticed it whilst looking for something else, and had to say something.

I think we've long reached the stage in this country where the £1.00 coin is probably the most heavily circulated of all the coins. Conversely, the 1p, 2p & to some extent the 5p, are spending protracted periods sitting in jars being saved up to pay in bulk to a bank, or otherwise not being used. This is why it's still relatively easy to find a lustred circulation 1990 1p, but virtually impossible to find the same in a 1990 £1.00, for example.

[SionGilbey 1]

Sorry to bump this old thread, but I noticed it whilst looking for something else, and had to say something.

I think we've long reached the stage in this country where the £1.00 coin is probably the most heavily circulated of all the coins. Conversely, the 1p, 2p & to some extent the 5p, are spending protracted periods sitting in jars being saved up to pay in bulk to a bank, or otherwise not being used. This is why it's still relatively easy to find a lustred circulation 1990 1p, but virtually impossible to find the same in a 1990 £1.00, for example.

It's because the £1 is the only coin that's useful.

To buy a 75p can of coke,for example, you have a few choices:

Ridiculous numbers of 1 and 2ps which are now worth pretty much zilch, while when it was new it was worth closer to 20p now.

A handful of silver coins or just the plain old pound.

Personally I prefer to carry around a few pounds in case I need anything and fling the change in the penny jar to go to the bank in 5 years time.

One of the flourishing shops in Aber is poundland - and you can bet there's a lot of pound coins being battered in there.

The pound coin is just handy. It's easy to buy things, saves carrying around awkward and useless change everywhere and I admit it's the only coin I carry around with me.

Nowadays, notes and plastic are the only real money - coins aren't as useful to people these days as they were in 1971.

Using a worth calculator, I can see that if I took a 50p coin back to 1971 and wanted to know how how much spending power I had, it would be something between £5 and £10.

We only have coins with the spending power of <£2 and now anything £1 or over is pretty much worthless making the only coins useful 50p, £1 and £2.

[1949threepence 3,366]

Sorry to bump this old thread, but I noticed it whilst looking for something else, and had to say something.

I think we've long reached the stage in this country where the £1.00 coin is probably the most heavily circulated of all the coins. Conversely, the 1p, 2p & to some extent the 5p, are spending protracted periods sitting in jars being saved up to pay in bulk to a bank, or otherwise not being used. This is why it's still relatively easy to find a lustred circulation 1990 1p, but virtually impossible to find the same in a 1990 £1.00, for example.

It's because the £1 is the only coin that's useful.

To buy a 75p can of coke,for example, you have a few choices:

Ridiculous numbers of 1 and 2ps which are now worth pretty much zilch, while when it was new it was worth closer to 20p now.

A handful of silver coins or just the plain old pound.

Personally I prefer to carry around a few pounds in case I need anything and fling the change in the penny jar to go to the bank in 5 years time.

One of the flourishing shops in Aber is poundland - and you can bet there's a lot of pound coins being battered in there.

The pound coin is just handy. It's easy to buy things, saves carrying around awkward and useless change everywhere and I admit it's the only coin I carry around with me.

Nowadays, notes and plastic are the only real money - coins aren't as useful to people these days as they were in 1971.

Using a worth calculator, I can see that if I took a 50p coin back to 1971 and wanted to know how how much spending power I had, it would be something between £5 and £10.

We only have coins with the spending power of <£2 and now anything £1 or over is pretty much worthless making the only coins useful 50p, £1 and £2.

I'd just about add the 20p to that list. It's small enough to be not a nuisance, but large enough to handle without the difficulty of the 5p, and of sufficient spending power to still mean something in relatively small multiples.

100% agree with the rest of your post.

[Peckris 579]

It's because the £1 is the only coin that's useful.

To buy a 75p can of coke,for example, you have a few choices:

Ridiculous numbers of 1 and 2ps which are now worth pretty much zilch, while when it was new it was worth closer to 20p now.

A handful of silver coins or just the plain old pound.

Personally I prefer to carry around a few pounds in case I need anything and fling the change in the penny jar to go to the bank in 5 years time.

One of the flourishing shops in Aber is poundland - and you can bet there's a lot of pound coins being battered in there.

The pound coin is just handy. It's easy to buy things, saves carrying around awkward and useless change everywhere and I admit it's the only coin I carry around with me.

Nowadays, notes and plastic are the only real money - coins aren't as useful to people these days as they were in 1971.

Using a worth calculator, I can see that if I took a 50p coin back to 1971 and wanted to know how how much spending power I had, it would be something between £5 and £10.

We only have coins with the spending power of <£2 and now anything £1 or over is pretty much worthless making the only coins useful 50p, £1 and £2.

That's been increasingly true since early 20th Century. The circulating coinage has become a smaller and smaller part of the 'money supply'. A workman's wages before WW1 would probably have been less than £1, and most working people never saw a sovereign or a banknote - decisions made by the Royal Mint in those days would have been important, significant. Even up to the late 60s, the 50p was still a 10/- banknote. In 1971 a tin of beans would have been around 4p. You'd have paid for it with a 5p or a 10p. A cup of coffee or a bag of crisps or a bus fare was 2p.

Modern coins are like 'toy money' and worth not much more. But I'd hate to see them disappear altogether - it might be fatal for our hobby.

[Uncle Phil 0]

I very rarely have any money with me at all. I use my debit card for just about everything. About the only exception is car parking, so now and again, I chuck a few £1 coins in the car ashtray for that.

Funny that this should come up again actually. My Mrs just gave me a 2009 Darwin £2 coin which I had never seen before - but I wouldn't cos I don't use coins Only 25,000 minted and already on Ebay for a tidy sum for BU examples.

I haven't bothered playing with modern coins in the hope that "they might be worth something one day" but this looks vaguely promising.

[scott 129]

i found a 1989 1p with 90% lustre

seems recently a few higher grade bits have found curculation

[Rob 3,002]

Probably me given our proximity then, as part of a collection I acquired had a load of earlier decimals with lots of lustre which for obvious reasons I recycled via the economy.

[1949threepence 3,366]

I very rarely have any money with me at all. I use my debit card for just about everything. About the only exception is car parking, so now and again, I chuck a few £1 coins in the car ashtray for that.

Funny that this should come up again actually. My Mrs just gave me a 2009 Darwin £2 coin which I had never seen before - but I wouldn't cos I don't use coins Only 25,000 minted and already on Ebay for a tidy sum for BU examples.

I haven't bothered playing with modern coins in the hope that "they might be worth something one day" but this looks vaguely promising.

I've received 3 in my change, so I wish only 25,000 had been minted !!!

Actually the true figure is 3,903,000 ~ see Royal Mint mintage figures here

[Peckris 579]

I very rarely have any money with me at all. I use my debit card for just about everything. About the only exception is car parking, so now and again, I chuck a few £1 coins in the car ashtray for that.

Funny that this should come up again actually. My Mrs just gave me a 2009 Darwin £2 coin which I had never seen before - but I wouldn't cos I don't use coins Only 25,000 minted and already on Ebay for a tidy sum for BU examples.

I haven't bothered playing with modern coins in the hope that "they might be worth something one day" but this looks vaguely promising.

I've received 3 in my change, so I wish only 25,000 had been minted !!!

Actually the true figure is 3,903,000 ~ see Royal Mint mintage figures here

Which makes them more common than 1981 10p's - wonder how often those come up on eBay?

[Uncle Phil 0]

I very rarely have any money with me at all. I use my debit card for just about everything. About the only exception is car parking, so now and again, I chuck a few £1 coins in the car ashtray for that.

Funny that this should come up again actually. My Mrs just gave me a 2009 Darwin £2 coin which I had never seen before - but I wouldn't cos I don't use coins Only 25,000 minted and already on Ebay for a tidy sum for BU examples.

I haven't bothered playing with modern coins in the hope that "they might be worth something one day" but this looks vaguely promising.

I've received 3 in my change, so I wish only 25,000 had been minted !!!

Actually the true figure is 3,903,000 ~ see Royal Mint mintage figures here

I'm obviously looking at the wrong websites

[1949threepence 3,366]

I very rarely have any money with me at all. I use my debit card for just about everything. About the only exception is car parking, so now and again, I chuck a few £1 coins in the car ashtray for that.

Funny that this should come up again actually. My Mrs just gave me a 2009 Darwin £2 coin which I had never seen before - but I wouldn't cos I don't use coins Only 25,000 minted and already on Ebay for a tidy sum for BU examples.

I haven't bothered playing with modern coins in the hope that "they might be worth something one day" but this looks vaguely promising.

I've received 3 in my change, so I wish only 25,000 had been minted !!!

Actually the true figure is 3,903,000 ~ see Royal Mint mintage figures here

I'm obviously looking at the wrong websites

Easily done, Phil. I've been there myself !!!

If you want a really scarce modern coin, look out for the Kew Gardens 2009 50p. Only 10,000 minted for circulation. Now that's rare

Edited June 8, 2011 by 1949threepence