Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 13 i Coin Collector

CHARLES BABBAGE 50P RELEASED The Royal Mint have revealed the design of a new 50p which celebrates the life and legacy of scientist Charles Babbage, 150 years after his death. The new coin is part of The Royal Mint’s ‘Innovation in Science’ series, which pays tribute to some of Britain’s greatest minds, and follows similar coins in honour of John Logie Baird, Rosalind Franklin and Stephen Hawking. An influential scientist, Charles Babbage was a lifelong inventor who believed that scientific advancement should benefit everyone. He was best known for his mechanical calculator, or ‘Difference Engine,’ and conceived the Analytical Engine, that had many essential features found in modern digital computers. Designed by Nigel Tudman and Jas Bhamra, the coin honours Babbage’s legacy with a design that links his machinery to…

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Archaeological evidence points to various beliefs in how planetary motions affected individual lives, political events and sometimes entire nations. When the heavens were unpredictable, what the ancient people saw would leave a strong impact, they sought explanation. Elements of astronomy and astrology often translated on coins, especially in ancient Rome. Unpredictable occurrences such as eclipses, meteors or comets were regularly associated with great people and eras in Roman history. THE ZODIAC ON COINS To understand how ancient Romans interpreted celestial bodies, we must first refer to the written sources. In scholarship, the findings on ancient Roman beliefs in astrology and knowledge of astronomy is transferred to us from writers of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Around 30-40 AD, Roman poet Marcus Manilius wrote his poem ‘Astronomica’ in five books,…

A lthough we can say that coins, as we understand the word today, were not struck in Ireland until a few years prior to AD1000, we can also point to a strong likelihood that the gold for many of the first coins struck more than a thousand years earlier (c. 100 BC) in what we now call England came from ancient alluvial gold found in Ireland. The ancient Irish Celts used the same sources to obtain gold for their magnificent neck torcs and ceremonial weaponry, as well as for casting small circular bands of gold often referred to as ring money. Those bands, along with cattle, probably served as bullion wealth among the Celtic Irish aristocracy. If we now move forward in time to AD 995 we find a thriving…

Despite the cynicism adapted coins receive the second lives that some coins have had are worth study in themselves and the resulting objects, items of currency transformed into things with a different use, can sometimes be more collectable than unaltered coins would be. Perhaps the most obvious way to adapt a coin is to make it into a pendant either by attaching a suspension loop to the edge of the coin or by the simpler expedient of drilling a hole through it. This latter practice has certainly gone on since the days of the Roman Empire as attested by coins found in hoards of that date with a neatly drilled hole. The practice has continued to the present day, coins of all dates and periods being found treated in this…

The term ‘Archaic’ refers to the beginnings of human history, when our early ancestors began to settle, trade, and found fledgling nations. Numismatists use the term to refer to the beginnings of coinage and currency, which includes both barter-items and proto-coinage. The question as to when the first true coins appeared is one that’s fraught with uncertainty. Cowrie shells In China, Shang Dynasty (1766-1154 BCE) tombs have been found containing bronze Tong Bei, cast into the shape of cowrie shells. The shells themselves had been used as currency for generations. From around the 8th century BC, ancient Italians used Aes Rude, rough lumps of bronze, in trade. In other parts of Europe and the East, hack-silver, literally lumps of silver hacked into portable portions, were favoured. Identifiable coins, of a…

The kings of Northumbria issued coins for almost 200 years during the 7th and 9th centuries. Some of the earliest, known as sceats (pronounced shee-ats) were struck in good silver and carried the name of the king on the obverse, and an image of a fantastic ‘quadruped’ – a mythical beast thought to be a dog, lion or stag – on the reverse. With a diameter about half that of our current 1p, sceats were issued in the names of a succession of kings including Aldfrith, Eadberht, Alcred, Aethelred and Aelfwald between the years AD 685 and AD 788, at which time the quadruped was replaced by a small central cross and the name of the moneyer who had struck the coin. Just before Northumbria’s power began to decline, the…

Apoppy may seem like a strange symbol, but its origins lie in the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’, written by a Canadian doctor, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, in 1915. The poem refers to the landscape of war-torn Western Europe, where years of bombing had turned the countryside into fields of blasted mud and splintered trees. In these killing fields, nothing would grow with one striking exception, the bright red Flanders poppies. McCrae’s poem captured the public’s imagination and the image of the poppy came to represent not death and blood, as you might imagine, but hope and renewal. It was two women who were directly responsible for the poppy being adopted as an official symbol for the fallen; American humanitarian, Moina Michael, and the French academic, Anna Guérin. In 1921, the…

Just across the German border with Denmark lie lush green fields, with small houses with red brick façades occasionally appearing in the distance. At the edge of the paved road to the sleepy little town of Sonderborg stands a large old windmill. Nothing reminds us that this picturesque landscape was once the scene of a fierce battle. But it was here that the German-Danish War was decided in 1864, and so was the political landscape of the Jutland Peninsula, which to this day comprises part of the Kingdom of Denmark as well as the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. When the German-Danish War broke out in February 1864, the Danish King Christian IX had only been in office for three months. Christian had previously led the tussle over the Kingdom of…

I have always had a fascination with Victorian coins, ever since I first started checking coins in my change back in 1960. All the monarchs were there – Elizabeth II, George VI, George V, Edward VII, and of course Victoria. I was particularly interested in the pennies, and tried to build up a date series, looking out especially for those with an H or KN at the date. It didn’t matter how worn they were, and coins were circulating in those days that were worn flat. There was a particular magic about the Victorian Bun-Heads, and I remember keeping them in matchboxes and other containers. One of the first things I learnt about Victoria was that she enjoyed a very long reign – over 63 years – the longest of…

First published in 1926 by A.A. Milne as a collection of short stories, the timeless and universal appeal of the inhabitants of Hundred Acre Wood has remained unparalleled for the last 95 years. The Royal Mint has now revealed its 2021 series of Winnie the Pooh 50p coins, with the first coin featuring a group shot of Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Owl, Eeyore, Rabbit, Tigger, Kanga and Roo. The design is said to be inspired by the original decorations of illustrator EH Shepard. Part of a nine-coin Winnie the Pooh collectors’ series being released over three years, the 2021 range will also include Owl and Tigger, released later this year. Daniel Thorne, The Royal Mint’s product designer for the Winnie the Pooh coins, said: ‘Using inspiration from the original decorations…

A Scotland 1576 James VI £20 coin, said to be the largest gold issue of the British Isles, was recently sold at Stack’s Bowers Galleries. The historic piece was one of hundreds of NGC-certified vintage coins offered in two auctions. The coin – graded NGC VF 20 – is not only the largest gold issue of the British Isles, but also one of only seven known to exist in private hands. SOLD FOR £130,700 A Victoria gold Proof ‘Una and the Lion’ £5 1839 sold for $1,440,000, the most ever paid for the type and the second-most ever paid for a British coin at auction. Boasting great popularity and scarcity, the Una and the Lion coin, offered at the Heritage Auctions World’s Fair of Money sale, was designed exclusively for…

Roman coins are hugely popular with collectors of all levels and since they were issued across the world for many hundreds of years, there are many different varieties to collect. The subject is very complex but also hugely rewarding! Roman currency can generally be split into two categories: • Roman Republic: c. 500 – 27 BC • Roman Empire: 27 BC - AD 476 Influenced by the Greek, the first coins of the Roman Republic often featured images of mythical animals, gods and goddesses, or particular symbols. Later, the Roman Empire saw the coins feature portraits of leaders, increasingly whilst they were still living, such as Julius Caesar. The Romans discovered coins could be used as propaganda, underlining the power and wisdom of a leader and even suggesting they had…

The Royal Mint has a history stretching back over 1000 years and perhaps because of its longevity it has no founding charter. The Royal Mint Museum, on the other hand, being a mere 200 years old does have such a document. It takes the form of a memorandum signed by William Wellesley Pole, who was Master of the Mint at the time, and is dated 12 February 1816. Very clearly it states that Pole observed with some concern the absence of a collection of coins and medals located within the Mint. Henceforth, it notes, there will be such a collection and it will be made up of proof pieces and coinage tools. The question that arises, though, is why Pole’s thoughts turned to this question early in 1816. One possible…

The Special Constabulary Long Service Medal is one example of an official medal and was initially authorised in 1919 to mark unpaid service as a part-time police officer in the First World War. The medal is awarded for nine years service but war service counted as treble. So officers who completed at least three years service and 150 duties during the war were awarded the medal. They also received a small bar with the words ‘The Great War 1914-18’ which was sewn onto the ribbon. In 1929 a bar for ten years additional service was authorised with the wording ‘Long Service’ followed by the year. The obverse of the medal has the sovereign’s head and on the reverse are a partial laurel wreath and the wording ‘For Faithful Service In…

The Royal Mint’s ‘Dinosauria Collection’ began in 2020 with a set of three 50p coins celebrating the discovery of dinosaurs, and featuring dramatic images of the Megalosaurus, Iguanodon and Hylaeosaurus, respectively. The 2020 coins marked the first time a dinosaur has featured on a British coin and the designs proved to be very popular, prompting a further set of three in 2021. The Silver and Gold Proof versions of the 2020 coins have sold out on The Royal Mint shop, whilst the Brilliant Uncirculated versions are available as a set of three for £30. The coins in the 2020 series are as follows: • The Megalosaurus 50p features a depiction of the dinosaur and the text ‘MEGALOSAURUS’ and ‘BUCKLAND 1824’. • The Iguanodon 50p features a depiction of the dinosaur…