Silver values and popular requests

Silver Market values:

If you have coins that are British, silver coloured, and dated before 1920, assuming they are not hammered (pre 1660's) and a genuine coin, they are made of Sterling (92.5%) silver. If you have a British silver coin dated 1921-1946 it contains 50% silver. Such coins do often have a numismatic value but if very worn are only worth their Bullion value. The live chart below shows the current value of silver in GBP(£) per KG:

[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]

For Gold coins, please see here.

Identification:

Some British coins can be hard to identify. If you are not sure what denomination a coin is maybe my identification guide will help.

Popular Valuation requests:

Very popular at the moment are enquiries about British 2p coins with the words 'New Pence' on the back. A BBC television programme seems to have started the confusion and to prevent endless streams of people writing to me I have created this page.

Something people ask about frequently, even after many years, concern the British £2 coins showing the Queen wearing a necklace. It was a myth, a complete fabrication. As far as I am aware mintage numbers for the normal circulated issue were the same for this variety as the others (about 13,000,000) and this coin is not rare and has no extra value.

Another couple of common questions concerning moder £2 coins are the TWO DOUNDS inscription on the 2006 Isambard Kingdom Brunel coin. On some of these the P in Pounds has ended up in the join between the inner silver coloured ring and the outer brass coloured ring, making it appear more like a D than a P. This 'error' is very common. Also common is the 2014 WWI £2 coin with botched 'YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS' legend on the reverse.

People regularly ask me about coins where the back appears upside down compared to the front. i.e when you hold a coin between two fingers at the top and bottom and rotate it, the reverse image is upside down. These coins are not fakes or rare, Most British coins dated before 1860 were like that and all American, and many other countries coins are still made that way.

Other popular enquiries are on the Elizabeth II commemorative crowns (5 Shillings or later £5.00, 1953 - date). These coins are generally worth very little as they were produced in such high numbers. The 'Churchill' Crown is a popular enquiry and is only worth about £1.00 even if in mint condition. Although there are many varieties of Crowns... Specimen strikings, Proofs, Silver Proofs, Gold Proofs etc and these are all worth more than their 'Standard' cousins.

If you would like information on a coin or coins that you have, I would suggest posting a question in the forum first.

Page updated 28th July 2015.