Newly Inherited Coins

[Poppy]

Hello 🙂 thank you for letting me join the forum. I've been reading through the various posts for the last few weeks.

I have recently inherited a number of coins; some of which have been fairly well looked after, some of which are in old, damp albums and some of which are rattling around in boxes and tins. 

I hope you won't mind me posting a few on here every now and again as I start to sort through them all 😊. At first glance it looks like some of them might be worth a little bit and others are worth nothing more than the enjoyment of looking at them and learning about them. A lot of the ones in albums have gone green!

Hopefully there's a photo attached of the better of the storage containers. The coins in these containers are in little velvety trays.

Hopefully this all posts correctly! Thank you 🙂.

 

[Chris Perkins]

Hello.

Certainly a nice looking coin cabinet. I hope the content is equally high-end!

The greenness is caused by PVC, which was a common constituent of plastic coin albums from the 60s to 80s (and sometimes beyond). You may be lucky and be able to remove the mess with acetone, which won't harm the coins.

[Poppy]

Aaw thank you 🙂 that acetone tip sounds like a good plan! The old albums are definitely from the 80's because I used to help put the coins into them as my share of the hobby! 

Some of the coins from the cabinet look absolutely gorgeous - I'm going to do a bit of research to try to figure out what they are and then probably share some photos on here as they're so beautiful to look at 🤩 there's a nice variety of well loved coins (ie pretty worn out!) and barely touched coins.

Thank you again! 

[Paddy]

I am looking forward to seeing these!

 

[Poppy]

Thanks 🙂 I'm looking forward to working out what coins are here and how old they are. 

[secret santa]

46 minutes ago, Paddy said:

I am looking forward to seeing these!

Me too !

[Coinery]

Make sure it’s the surgical/household acetone, though, not the stuff you clean your nails with, as these mostly have moisturisers +\- other products added to them.

[Poppy]

That's also a very good tip - thank you. This is such a lovely forum 😊

[Paddy]

As a tip on getting surgical Acetone - chemists sell it but at very high price for very small quantities. You can order it online for a small fraction of the money.

 

[Poppy]

Well who knew how difficult it was to photograph a coin 😅. I think we have a 1900 Crown in reasonable condition with a bit of a green tinge to it, and a 1897 Shilling and 1887 Florin in quite lovely condition. I just picked a random three from the same era as there are so many to choose from!

There are hundreds of coins spanning a vast range of dates and grades (I can't fathom how to grade a coin properly) and I've no clue what may have been cleaned or what may be a forgery or genuine! Any hints, tips or ideas on how to organise and catalogue very much appreciated. If anyone would like to suggest grades or values that'd also be amazing but ultimately I'm just admiring and enjoying the coins and their history 😊.

I'll post the hammered coins in the correct part of the forum for some help in identifying those ones. They're very tricky to work out!

Thanks everyone 🙂

P.S. I'll try and order some acetone over the weekend to combat some of the green! 

 

 

[Poppy]

And the back of the coins 🙂

[Chris Perkins]

Not bad. Coincidentally, those are IMO textbook examples of a normal circulated coin (around Fine) - the crown, a mid grade coin (around VF) - the florin, and a higher grade coin (around EF) - the shilling. 

[Poppy]

Thank you 😊 every now and again I'm going to pick out little groups of three like this and admire them / post them on here 🤩 it's a lovely space to share the coins!

[Paddy]

To add more - the 1900 Crown is quite common and not rare. On the edge you will see the words ANNO REGNI followed by Roman numerals - for 1900 these will be either LXIII or LXIV for the 63rd or 64th year of her reign. They are of equal scarcity but interesting. In that condition probably £40 to £50 in the current market.

The Florin 1887 is the most common year for Jubilee head florins as it was the first year of this design and a great many were put aside. Condition is better but probably £20 to £25.

The shilling 1897 is probably the nicest coin and the most collectable grade - the same value as the florin.

All in my humble opinion - others may say different.

[Poppy]

That's nice to know 😊 thank you. I actually really love the shilling, it's such a good colour! 

[secret santa]

Very decent photographs.

[copper123]

yep love the shilling would be nice in my type set

[Zo Arms]

23 hours ago, Poppy said:

Well who knew how difficult it was to photograph a coin 😅. I think we have a 1900 Crown in reasonable condition with a bit of a green tinge to it, and a 1897 Shilling and 1887 Florin in quite lovely condition. I just picked a random three from the same era as there are so many to choose from!

There are hundreds of coins spanning a vast range of dates and grades (I can't fathom how to grade a coin properly) and I've no clue what may have been cleaned or what may be a forgery or genuine! Any hints, tips or ideas on how to organise and catalogue very much appreciated. If anyone would like to suggest grades or values that'd also be amazing but ultimately I'm just admiring and enjoying the coins and their history 😊.

I'll post the hammered coins in the correct part of the forum for some help in identifying those ones. They're very tricky to work out!

Thanks everyone 🙂

P.S. I'll try and order some acetone over the weekend to combat some of the green! 

 

 

You should be able to get acetone from any builders merchants. Jewson, Selco etc....

[Poppy]

Some small coins that I've been checking this afternoon 🙂 we have an 1817 sixpence, an 1843 fourpence, a 1912 threepence and an 1876 third farthing. I think they're all pretty decent grade wise; the photos are okay but not amazing 😅.

[Chris Perkins]

I think the 1843 groat is the highlight there. The other 3 are all nice coins, too. The 6d has a little wear, the 3d is very nice but has uneven toning. The third farthing looks like it might have some darker areas/surface issues.

[Poppy]

I agree - something isn't quite right with the surface of that one at all! I wasn't even sure whether it was trying to be bronze coloured or silver coloured 😅 I had to check in the book. 

[Poppy]

Well I had a lovely weekend sorting and donating lots of coins to various places 😊 the sorting was made so much easier thanks to this forum! I've learnt loads from reading through the many posts. Charity shops were happy to accept the old foreign coins which was great. 

I also sold a few bits and bobs to some small antique shops. I hope someone else can find those coins now and start or continue their own shiny collection 🙂

I've saved a select handful  of coins for myself to enjoy. I've kept this extremely well worn but very beautiful (if I've got my identification right here) gothic florin. What an awesome font that would have been once upon a time! 

[Paddy]

Well done on your sorting! I hope you didn't give away the Crown Jewels to the charity shop!

The Gothic Florins are a lovely design. Yours is pretty well worn, but you can still just make out the date as 1871. A nice souvenir.

 

[Poppy]

Thank you 😊 the sorting was great fun! I also think the Florin is a nice souvenir - they really are a lovely design and the fact it's so worn makes me feel like it's been very well loved since 1871! I had no idea what the date might have been so that is awesome to know 🤩 thank you so much! 

[Paddy]

In case you come across anymore of these, the date is in Roman Numerals just behind Victoria's shoulder. You can just make out the lxxi at the end and can assume the rest. Worth knowing how to date them as some dates are much scarcer and more valuable than others.