Red Riley

Not sure whether he's trying to say 'sixpence' or 'sex pest'. The translation seems to come from Babel Fish as well.

The cutting up of the coat of arms strikes me as being little more than a gimmick and, one which (if it lasts as long as the last set) we will be heartily sick of in 37 years time. The only good thing I can say is that it's not quite as bad as the Euro - but it is a close run thing.

Needs cleaning = needs binning. Obviously there is something wrong with our hobby's PR when a significant proportion of the public think we will buy any old crap just so long as it's vaguely round and made of metal.

Apparently not. I read somewhere that the average hedgehog is actually hung like a donkey and then some. Something to do with spines apparently, so perhaps we should be saying 'hung like a hedgehog', but I doubt it'll catch on. Who started this subject anyway?

The feedback's pretty impressive too!

You could try putting it in hot water which would make the plastic more malleable and shouldn't damage the coin.

This is a setup for Chris, the owner of Rotographic Publications but I'll beat him to it. The books you want are Roman Silver Coins and Roman Base Metal Coins (see top of the page). I have found both very useful. As I have just bought a batch of uncleaned Roman coins myself, I would be interested to know why you found yours so bad. Mine were okay, but nothing spectacular. I guess the fun is in cleaning them up and identifying them, but in my case this is likely to take some time. As far as American coins are concerned, there are a number of collectors from across the pond on this website, and no doubt when the sun catches up with them, they will help you out.

Generally speaking most coins before approximately 1800 were minted in such a way that the two sides were at 180 deg. to each other. The period between 1800 and 1887 was a transitional stage and from 1887 virtually everything has been minted the modern way with both sides the same way up.

Sadly my recollection of D-Day is a little sketchy but as far as I can recall, from 15 February 1971 pre-decimal bronze/brass coins (and I suppose the 3d joey) were only legal tender in lots which could be directly converted to the new currency i.e. 6d = 2.5np. That situation continued I believe until the August (i.e. 6 months later) when the 1d and 3d were officially declared to be no longer legal tender. It had originally been the intention to withdraw the 6d at the same time, but the Daily Mail or the Express or someone mounted a 'Save Our Tanner' campaign and the government relented, gradually withdrawing the little coin over the next few years until it too was declared non-legal currency. In the sixties, the government had wanted to adopt the 10 shilling/50p as the new unit of currency but for some reason they eventually stuck with the £. There was, as far as I am aware, no intention to withdraw the shilling and the florin as they were directly convertable to the new currency even if it resulted in twenty years of confused tourists. The crown at 25p, and for all I know the double florin are still technically legal tender. I suppose it is quite possible that by some quirk of the legislation, the groat is still legal tender for 1.666667p. Now that would cause confusion at Tesco's checkout... I hope this helps despite the lack of actual dates.

Hi Holger, I've checked my 1847 (a close colon) and have discovered that the colon after Britanniar is barely visible to the naked eye. This in fact is the only year in my collection where this anomaly occurs, but I think that if you look very carefully at your photograph, there is just the vestige of the upper dot. Therefore, I wouldn't necessarily agree that the coin you have posted is a variety, but merely a feature of all 1847 close dots caused by localised wear on the die.

I found this website whilst browsing: http://www.australianstamp.com/Coin-web/au...ny/penngeo6.htm. It seems to be a pretty common year and unless in excellent condition is likely to be worth little more than loose change. It did however surprise me that some pennies from this year were minted in India. Prices incidentally are in Australian dollars.

Yep, it's an 1806-7 halfpenny. Were they ever legal tender in Canada?

Not entirely certain what it is you want to know ,Jennifer. Is it about a specific 1943 penny, or pennies in general?

Okay, it's an 1817 shilling of a type which technically was still legal currency (for 5p) until 1990. This particular type of coin was issued at a time when the coinage was being completely modernised and so a very large number were produced; values are consequently low. N.B. There are quite a large number of contemporary forgeries of this design.

Yes but the kid he swapped them with has probably got an excellent collection by now, plus he's probably still got all his teeth. It's an ill wind...

I think it's a 1730 (the 'O' looks too big for a 1739), but it doesn't matter a lot since they're both fairly common. Based purely on the reverse and assuming that it can be confirmed as one or the other, I think you should be looking at approximately £10-£14.

The London Gazette is usually pretty authoratitive but in this case I hope it has got it completely wrong as the words 'dull as ditchwater' spring to mind. What does surprise me and throws a little doubt into my mind is that over the last 50 years or more, there has been a tendency to bring the Welsh national emblems (dragon, leek) into the coinage but from the descriptions given, there is no sign of them here. I can see riots all the way from Llantwit Major to Llanddewi Brefi! Incidentally, great visualisation Hertfordian.

Bob C.

It is very difficult to tell just from photographs, but I have seen forged Gothic crowns before and own (what I hope is) the genuine article - now on the desk in front of me. 1) Not certain what has happened to the obverse, but it is mighty suspicious. Gothic crowns were not circulation coins and were generally produced to a very high standard so a poorly struck head would be extremely unusual. 2) The plain edge is much rarer than the standard 'Undecimo'. It is also the hardest part of a coin for a forger to produce. Very dodgy. 3) The lettering on a Gothic crown is crisp and noticeably flat topped. The lettering on this one is anything but, and looks distinctly wobbly in places. 4) I've just noticed that the strings on the harp are not straight, whereas those on the genuine article could have been produced with a slide rule. Conclusion: It's a dud.

Hi, welcome to the forum. I thought I would get in before Chris does (it always sounds better coming from an impartial source!) and direct you to his Collectors' Coins GB 2008 - see above or the Rotographic section on this forum. I really don't want to put you off, because metal detecting done properly can be fun, but, mainly due to the numbers produced and the effects of spending 100+ years exposed to the elements, anything you find in the ground from that particular era (with the exception of gold) is likely to be worth little more than its metal content. There are of course rare dates/varieties but the chances of finding any of those in acceptable condition are very low indeed.

I have compared your photograph with an 1863 penny in my collection. I have to say that they look pretty much identical even down to the slight distortion of the inner beading above the B. I also checked two different 1864s and an AU 1862 and to be honest there is very little difference. The lettering on Victorian bronze is often way off line - perhaps they didn't use a protractor!

The problem with Winston Churchill (and I don't begrudge him his place in history) is that Britain has a morbid fascination with the Second World War, Dunkirk Spirit, D-Day, El Alamein and all that, as if it were some kind of golden age (it wasn't if you were under the bombs in the blitz). Yes, of course we should look back with a degree of pride, but the years 1939-45 seem to dominate our historical thinking almost to the exclusion of anything else. Can't we just take our foot off of this particular gas pedal for a bit and rediscover other equally interesting periods of our history?

I would go with a series of great Britons e.g. Darwin, Brunel, Robbie Burns (to keep the Scots happy until they take their ball away). They have all appeared on British banknotes, Darwin and Brunel on the reverses of BoE notes, and Robbie Burns has been on the RBS notes since 1970, and previous to that 1961 on the British Linen Bank notes. And now Adam Smith, a Scot is on the reverse of the £20 BoE note. Actually I like those series, since they are non political, and commemorate people that made Britain great, industrially, financially etc. Aye, but the good thing about dead celebrities is that when you get fed up with them, you can change them without offending anybody. I don't think it really matters that they have already been honoured in some way and if they are skipped, we might just end up with a few second rate celebrities gracing our coinage. Pure speculation of course as it's got as much chance of happening as England winning the Football World Cup again in my lifetime. Going back more to the original point of this thread, with the accession of George VI, the reverses of the two smaller bronze coins went off in a rather different direction with the Golden Hind and the wren but since then, circulation coins have just followed tired old themes. It would be nice to see the historical/wildlife series picked up again; a few suggestions - Stonehenge, St. Paul's Cathedral (or would this look too much like the Jefferson nickel?), S S Great Britain, red deer, golden eagle...

I would go with a series of great Britons e.g. Darwin, Brunel, Robbie Burns (to keep the Scots happy until they take their ball away).