Edward 1St Penny

[mattyguk1]

hi all, im new to the forum and new to coin collecting. I intend to collect hammered british coins and would appreciate your opinions on this Edward 1st penny, ive a lot to learn so any information would be appreciated! also what books would you recommend as guides on hammered coins? thanks in advance matt

[Rob]

Hi Matt. Welcome to the forum. The coin is ok. A little flat in the middle, but round and fully struck up which is a good starting point.

You have asked a very difficult question because hammered coinage is so varied that most periods have their own restricted references. Until you have decided where to specialise, a general reference or two would be ok. North vols. 1 & 2 cover up to 1272 and 1272-1662, so your coin would be in volume 2. A copy of Coincraft wouldn't go amiss. The last one was in 2000, but the varieties are quite well laid out and it gives good collecting tips for each type. Spink's Coins of England will give an indication of prices for the various issues. Once you have decided what to collect, your library will need to expand considerably to accommodate the more detailed references which are too numerous to list given we potentially have coins covering 1700 years if you include Celtic through to Charles II.

[mattyguk1]

thanks for the reply rob, im probably going to concentrate on Edward 1st for a while as there seems to be plenty of variety. need to study up a bit first though as im having trouble telling the difference between Edward 1st and 2nd pennies!

[Coinery]

Welcome mattyguk, I can heartily recommend 'The Galata Guide to the Pennies of Edward I and II' by Paul & Bente Withers! A very good starting place for these pennies!

[HistoricCoinage]

A nice coin, Matt! It's definitely one of Blencoe's, I would recognise that finger and background anywhere.

I would definitely suggest you get Withers' The Pennies of Edward I and II. It's a book that runs right from the basics through to the detailed subclassing. You can read more about it here.

[mattyguk1]

thanks all, hopefully the coins a good start to a collection. it seems to be a thin line as to whats good or not so good, I presumed that a full round coins better than a damaged one but theres a trade off between full coin with slightly worn pressing as to a clearer pressing on a damaged coin? ive ordered the galata guide so hope that will help

[Coinery]

ive ordered the galata guide so hope that will help

Top move, you'll be hooked! Rob (R P Coins) and Clive (Historic Coinage) are your main men in this field, to name but two of many experienced members of this forum.

It's a brave and exciting area to collect in, I think you'll be on here a lot...it is rather addictive!

[mattyguk1]

hi all, well ive received my spink catalogue and am surprised at the amount of variations! anybody care to suggest what spink code mine may be and explain why or is it to worn to tell?

[Peter]

hi all, well ive received my spink catalogue and am surprised at the amount of variations! anybody care to suggest what spink code mine may be and explain why or is it to worn to tell?

Matt

England's striking history would be an excellent purchase as it illustrates the different classes and mint id's.it is also a bargain and written in an interesting manner.

[HistoricCoinage]

hi all, well ive received my spink catalogue and am surprised at the amount of variations! anybody care to suggest what spink code mine may be and explain why or is it to worn to tell?

Matt

England's striking history would be an excellent purchase as it illustrates the different classes and mint id's.it is also a bargain and written in an interesting manner.

I'm not a fan of the Striking History book at all, personally I'd choose Galata's guide over this. It is much more detailed and accurate.

From a quick glance, it looks like a class 3g.

[Coinery]

hi all, well ive received my spink catalogue and am surprised at the amount of variations! anybody care to suggest what spink code mine may be and explain why or is it to worn to tell?

You wait 'til you start looking at the specialist books, it's then that it gets interesting! You'll soon realise there are hundreds, possibly thousands, of Edward penny varieties alone, wouldn't be interesting otherwise!

However, do get the Galata guide, it'll undo the Spink's riddle, and add an exciting new string to your bow!

Edit: maybe not thousands, but a lot!

Edited September 10, 2013 by Coinery

[TomGoodheart]

thanks all, hopefully the coins a good start to a collection. it seems to be a thin line as to whats good or not so good, I presumed that a full round coins better than a damaged one but theres a trade off between full coin with slightly worn pressing as to a clearer pressing on a damaged coin?

Ideally, you want a full weight, round, evenly well struck coin with nice toning (!!) However those aren't easy to come by and you'll find individual collectors often have different priorities as to which aspect is most important to them.

For example, in my own area of collecting interest, there were two sales through Spink towards the end of 1999 and middle of 2000. In the first, the Martin Hughes collection, many coins were noticably full and round, and although not always fully struck up, most were to my eyes very attractive.

The second, of J M Ashby's coins, features many very crisply struck coins with minimal wear. However some of the flans are oddly shaped and there are occasional weak areas noticable to the King's portrait. Something that presumably Ashby felt he could live with, but for me that detracts at times from the coin.

In the end only you can decide what's most important about a coin and what, though less-than-perfect, is forgivable. This is where knowledge comes in. If you can get to see a number of coins in a series, through auction catalogues, other publications or collections, you can get a better idea of what is the average condition coin and, hopefully, a benchmark coin to aim for or try to better. That of course takes time. But it can be fun learning!

Edited September 10, 2013 by TomGoodheart