Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 15 i Coin Collector

The coin market continues to perform well despite the global events that have made this a rather challenging decade so far. Of course, a buoyant market doesn’t mean we should just spend, spend, spend, and trade experts continue to advise us to use trusted traders (see the news story on page 10). Meanwhile, coin fairs are back on and the social side of our hobby is returning. It was a real pleasure to attend the York Coin Fair earlier this year and chat to collectors and traders. Online meetings and talks are fantastic, but nothing beats meeting fellow enthusiasts face to face. Whatever method you use to meet up with collector colleagues, our hobby continues to bring people together and make the world feel a little smaller. We pursue and…

The conflict in Ukraine has affected millions of people, and the response to the humanitarian crisis has prompted donations from around the world, including from the coin and banknote collecting communities. The Monnaie de Paris has issued a mini medal to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine, with €8 from each sale being donated to the Red Cross for the Ukrainian population. Priced at €10 each, the mini-medal features the Eiffel Tower proudly displaying the two-coloured Ukrainian flag. The flag also features the French national motto ‘Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite’ Meanwhile, the Royal Canadian Mint has announced that all net proceeds from the sale of their 2022 gold and silver pysanka coins will go to the Canadian Red Cross Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis Appeal. Canada’s pysanka-themed collector coins have been issued…

How does the system work? What happens if we purchase a virtual slice of the coin only for a wealthy collector to come along and try to buy it? ‘One of the things we were very conscious of was what happens in that scenario,’ Showpiece.com co-founder Graham Shircore told us. ‘Were someone to come to us and say they want to buy the whole thing, that would then be put to the owners for them to vote on.’ A majority of 60% would be needed for the sale to go ahead – the team believe 51% would not be enough and that 75% would leave many people disappointed.’ For those tempted to get involved, the option of selling the portion in the future is also important, and the website will…

Numismatics and Covid: Will there be a reunion in the third year of the pandemic? Admittedly, writing a column in the age of a worldwide pandemic is a daring undertaking, writes Sebastian Wieschowski. A lot can happen from printing a magazine to publishing it. As I write infection figures have risen again. German politics is still littered with discussion about restrictions, even with the situation in Ukraine unfolding. On a personal level, I have been pondering whether I should seriously buy a plane ticket to visit a numismatic friend. I remember my last numismatic trip back in January 2020. A new virus was out in the world but hardly anyone took notice. I had flown to New York and walked through a densely packed exhibition hall at the Grand Hyatt…

There is nothing new about refugees from war zones seeking asylum in Britain. A recent coin find suggests that they were doing it 2,000 years ago. On 29 September last year a rare Celtic gold coin, known to numismatists as a Petal Saltire quarter stater of the Hampshire Belgae, was discovered by a metal detectorist near Stockbridge, Hampshire, less than five miles from the Iron Age hillfort of Danebury. Elizabeth Cottam, director of Chris Rudd Ltd, the Celtic coin specialists, thinks that this little gold coin – it’s only 10mm in diameter – may have been minted around 55-40 BC, at or near Venta Belgarum (modern Winchester), by a wealthy Belgic migrant who fled from north-east Gaul to escape from the Roman forces of Julius Caesar during the Gallic War,…

Our subject is a copper coin about the size of a two pence piece. What is immediately striking is that it is not circular. Perhaps the person making the blanks was having a bad day or it was Friday afternoon and the workers at the mint wanted to get home. It is eight-sided but not even. The coin is in quite poor condition and you can only make out the silhouette of the ruler and a complex cross design on the reverse, with smaller crosses in the angles. There is the date 1622 on one side and the name of the ruler Philip IIII. One could make a guess that the coin refers to King Philip of Spain but it does not look like the usual Spanish copper coins. Of…

The Newman Numismatic Portal (NNP) will be holding the fourth NNP Symposium from 8 to 10 April, with talks set to include a behind-the-scenes look at the Dell Loy Hansen collection, said to be one of the greatest collections of U.S. coins ever formed. Launched in August 2020, the Newman Numismatic Portal (NNP) Symposium brings together a diverse selection of numismatic presentations into a concentrated, three-day, Zoom-based format. Previous Symposia featured talks on a variety of topics including U.S. federal coinage, tokens and medals, paper money, and ancient and world numismatics. The complete set of nearly a hundred presentations from previous events, produced by Lianna Spurrier of Numismatic Marketing, are available for viewing at nnp.wustl.edu/library/multimediadetail/539070. A spokesperson for NNP said: ‘While the course of the Covid pandemic remains unpredictable, online…

The story of banknotes proper starts in late 18th century with the Calcutta-based Bank of Hindostan, founded by Scottish businessmen. They were followed by the first of three colonial ‘Presidency Banks’, formed with British government support to help promote the economy and provide much needed finance for the expansion of industry in India. These were the Bank of Bengal, the Bank of Bombay and the Bank of Madras and all had the right to issue banknotes. Several other commercial banks also issued notes during the early to mid-19th century but they were all required to give this up in 1861 when the Paper Currency Act reserved this privilege to the Government of India. All these early issues are rare and expensive, even the occasional proof notes that come on to…

As we continue to go out and spend more cash, we’ve seen some BIG movers and shakers on our Scarcity Index. One 50p now holds the title as the biggest EVER mover since our Scarcity Index started! And, there’s some HUGE movers on our A-Z 10p Index too…You can use the updated A-Z 10p, 50p and £2 indexes here to discover how sought-after the coins in your collection really are. A-Z 10p Scarcity Index There are some big movers on the A-Z 10p Scarcity Index this quarter. In the biggest shake up we’ve ever seen on this Index the Postbox 10p has climbed an incredible nineteen places! Other big movers also include the K for King Arthur 10p, having climbed thirteen places, and the Fish and Chips 10p which has…

Adrian Marsden Adrian Marsden completed a Doctorate on Roman coinage at Oxford University and now works as the County Numismatist for Norfolk. His research interests include the Roman Imperial coinage and its contemporary copies, religion in Roman Britain, fakes and forgeries of coins from all periods and the 17th-century token series. Jonathan Callaway Jonathan Callaway is a retired banker who has researched, studied and collected paper money for over thirty years. He is the co-author of catalogues and histories of the paper money issues of Ireland and Scotland and is a Director of the International Bank Note Society. Jonathan’s latest banknotes guide is on page 46. Ema Sikic Ema is an archaeologist and art historian, and is a coin specialist at Baldwin’s. Her first encounter with numismatics was via her…

The American Numismatic Society (ANS) has announced that Dr. Nathan T. Elkins will be joining the ANS full time as Deputy Director, from June. Currently Associate Professor of Art History (Greek and Roman) at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, Dr. Elkins has been at the ANS as Visiting Research Scholar since August 2021. German auction house Kunker has issued a new book to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. The ‘company chronicle’ reflects the history of the German coin trade since 1971 and explains how the numismatic market has changed due to political shifts and technological innovations, and how Kunker reacted to all these challenges. According to the publishers, ‘Celebrating 50 Years of Künker is more than a company chronicle, it’s an important contribution to the history of the modern coin trade,…

Our new regular feature identifies your mystery coins. Send in your enquiries, together with a highresolution scan or photograph, to: Coin Collector, Fifth Floor, 31-32 Park Row, Leeds, LS1 5JD. To get things started, we have what at first glimpse may seem like an English penny, but on closer look revealed something more unusual… This does look like an English penny but the inscription does not seem to make sense! It is actually written in the Cyrillic alphabet so the H is an N and the P is an R. It reads ‘Obrenović III Prince of Serbia (1839-42 and 1860-68) and although the reverse is illegible, it is a 10 para coin of 1868, since that was the only year in which this type was issued. Mihailo Obrenovi? III acceded…

The Norman Conquest of Anglo-Saxon England is notably absent from the currency of the period. This is unsurprising given that William I inherited one of the best controlled and managed currencies in Europe. One of his only acts, other than to alter the inscription and portrait to his own, was to centralise the production of the dies used to strike the coins. However, two generations later the struggle for dominance over the kingdom was contested by two of William’s grandchildren, and brought about a period termed by some historians as the ‘Anarchy’. For the only time in English history coins were struck for those other than the king. When Henry I of England died in 1135, he left no surviving legitimate sons. Before his demise he had the leading barons…

With the end of the First World War, the existence of the fledgling Royal Air Force came under scrutiny from both the Royal Navy and the Army. They claimed that in peacetime, with the inevitable need to make drastic economies, there was little need for an independent air force and suggested that the force should be re-absorbed into the two senior services. However, the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sir Hugh Trenchard, was determined to preserve his air force and proposed that small units of aircraft could ‘police’ trouble spots and avoid costly deployment of large numbers of ground forces. An opportunity soon arose. Since 1900, the Somaliland Protectorate had suffered at the hands of Mohammed bin Abdulla Hassan, known as the ‘Mad Mullah.’ Action was repeatedly taken…

Starting points • When buying single-metal coins, look for those struck from uniform-coloured planchets, with no irregularities.• Most reputable mints produce commemorative bi/tri/quad-metallic coins. This allows you to budget and plan to grow a collection.• Forgers often use steel, plated with copper. A magnet is a good way to test for this. Must haves For many, copper coins are the perfect collectable, due to their variety and relative affordability. The term ‘early American coppers’ is sometimes used to refer to colonial and ‘hard times’ tokens, but is generally taken to mean America’s first federal one, and half-cent, coins (1793-1857). Prices start as low as £35 for a 1842 ‘braided-hair’ cent. Most expensive A 1943 Lincoln steel cent costs a few pounds, but a copper version made $204,000 at auction in…

Britannia, the personification of Britain, has appeared on many of our coins over the centuries, going way back to Roman times and the currency of Emperor Hadrian (you can read an in-depth guide to Britannia coins in issue 10 of Coin Collector). It is fascinating to look at how the symbol of the nation has evolved over the years, and a new set of coins from the Royal Mint reflect this changing attitude to patriotism, gender, age, and what it means to be British. The latest design, apparently inspired by Gustav Klimt’s classic 1905 painting ‘The Three ages of Woman’, marks the first time Britannia has appeared three times on one UK coin, as we see her move from girlhood to maturity. The design was created by Italian artist and…

The UK’s first bi-metallic, commemorative £2 coin celebrated the Rugby World Cup of 1999 which was held in England, Wales, France, Scotland and Ireland, though it was Wales who were considered the hosts, qualifying for the tournament automatically and hosting the final in Cardiff. The event was highly anticipated by sports fans and prompted The Royal Mint to issue the first ever commemorative £2 coin entered into general circulation. The coin features a design by medallist Ron Dutton showing a rugby ball and posts, along with the year ‘1999’ and the text ‘TWO POUNDS’. The edge inscription reads ‘RUGBY WORLD CUP 1999’ and the coin featured the fourth portrait of the Queen by Ian Rank-Broadley. The tournament was won by Australia who beat France, 35-12 in the final at the…

Jonathan Callaway is a Director of the International Bank Note Society Lawrence Chard Founder and Expert Numismatist, Speciality Sovereigns Elizabeth Cottam Specialist in Celtic coins and Director of Chris Rudd Ltd Richard Kelleher Assistant Keeper, Department of Coins and Medals, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Jonathan Mann Numismatist and coin expert, British coinage specialist Rory Naismith Lecturer in Medieval British History, King’s College London Ema Sikic Archaeologist, art historian, coin specialist at Baldwin’s, London Anglo-Saxon and Viking coinage: Gareth Williams Curator of Early Medieval Coins and Viking Collections at the British Museum…

Coin collectors and investors were recently given the chance to buy a ‘piece’ of an extremely rare King Edward VIII Penny, thanks to a ‘fractional ownership’ scheme launched by the website Showpiece.com, in partnership with auctioneers and dealers Baldwin’s. The rare coin, which was one of a very few that survived after Edward VIII abdicated (read the full story of the coin on page 61), was offered on the site for €50 a piece, with 4,000 pieces of the coin made available, thus giving the coin a value of €200,000. Weighing 9.36g and measuring 3.08cm, the current price tag makes the coin 500 times more precious than gold on a gram-for-gram basis, and 20 million times more valuable than its own face value. It is the only privately traded example…

The rare coin market continues to soar following a record-breaking marketplace in 2021, according to the experts at the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG), but collectors are being urged to be cautious about fraudulent, online advertisements selling counterfeit coins and fake gold, silver, and platinum bullion items. PNG President Richard Weaver said ‘Last year, a record 22 U.S. coins sold at auction for $1 million or more and hundreds of other historic coins and banknotes priced from $1,000 and up set new records when more than $551 million of U.S. rare coins were sold at major public auctions. The market boom continues as during the first month of 2022, there were reports of nearly $70 million of U.S. coins already sold at major auctions in January.’ However, Weaver cautions consumers and…

Munze Deutschland has joined the growing number of mints offering their coins and services via the popular Coiniverse collecting app, which already features the mints of Finland, France, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and Lithuania. A Munze Deutschland spokesperson said: ‘We are excited to join Coiniverse and bring our unique collector coins for extremely easy reach to the global collector community. We develop our services constantly and we think Coiniverse offers a great new channel to listen and learn from the whole collector community. We are certain that our cooperation with Coiniverse and other mints will result in many novel services to make coin collecting even more fun and social experience in the future.’ Mikko Sievanen, Head of Digital Development of Mint of Finland, added: ‘I’m so proud and happy to…

A Henry III gold penny described as England’s ‘first gold coin’ has fetched £540,000 at a Spink auction, whilst a NFT version of the coin has sold for £18,000 becoming the first Numismatic NFT Coin to be offered by an International Auction House. The Henry III Gold Penny was discovered by a metal detectorist in September 2021 near Hemyock (Devon), and is one of just eight of the 13th-century coins known to exist – and one of only four in private hands – and the first addition since the accession of the Conte specimen to the Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge) in 2001. A spokesperson for Spink auction house said: ‘This coin survives as a remarkable and exceedingly rare contemporary witness to Henry’s true self-image and his clear affinity with the iconography…

The ‘Money Talks’ exhibition will be at Leeds City Museum until June 2022, and explores the wide-ranging impact that money has had on people and how it shapes our perceptions. It raises questions around value and worth, tells stories from across the globe, and discusses more sensitive subjects including gambling and addiction. The exhibition is sponsored by Leeds Building Society. The American Numismatic Society (ANS) has announced the establishment of the Andrew M. Burnett Chair of Roman Numismatics. The newly endowed chair is named in honour of renowned British numismatist, scholar, and ANS Board of Trustees Vice President Andrew M. Burnett and is funded by an anonymous donor. Dr. Lucia Carbone, Assistant Curator of Roman Coins and the scientific co-director of the Roman Republican Die Project, will be the first…

The University of Oxford’s School of Archaeology has announced the launch of the Celtic Coin Index Digital (CCID) website, an online archive that provides access to the world’s largest dataset of Iron Age coins in Britain. The Celtic Coin Index (CCI) has been housed in the Institute of Archaeology at Oxford since 1964 and now holds nearly 85,000 records of around 68,000 specimens of Iron Age coins; now the new digital resource means these cards and some of their related images and data are available online. Iron Age coins were produced and used from around the early to mid-2nd century BC through the 1st century AD. They provide the first written evidence from Britain and mark the end of its ‘prehistory’. These coins are mainly found in southern and eastern…

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The £2 coin was Britain’s first bi-metallic coin for over 300 years (the outer ring is made from copper, zinc and nickel, and the inner disc from copper and nickel) and is the country’s highest denomination in circulation. The initial design, by Bruce Rushin, was an abstract image symbolising the history of technological achievement, with the text ‘TWO POUNDS’ above and the year below. Coins with this design were last issued in 2015. In that year the design of the standard £2 coin was updated to an image of Britannia by Antony Dufort. The launch of the ‘Technology’ coin in 1997 didn’t go as planned. In that year 13 million copies were minted, yet the British public didn’t get to use the coins until 1998. The experts at The Royal…

AUSTRALIA (www.ramint.gov.au) Australian Dinosaurs: Australovenator Denomination: $1 Diameter: 25mm Weight: 11.66g Metal: 99.9% Fine Silver Mintage: 5,000 Mint: Royal Australian Mint Lunar Year of the Tiger Denomination: $5 Diameter: 39.62 mm Weight: 31.107g Metal: 99.99% Fine Silver Mintage: 7,500 Mint: Royal Australian Mint AUSTRIA (www.muenzeoesterreich.at) Extraterrestrial Life Denomination: €25 Diameter: 34 mm Weight: 7.15g Metal: Silver ring, Niobium core Mintage: 65,000 Mint: Austrian Mint Luminous Marine Life: Blue-Ringed Octopus Denomination: €3 Diameter: 34 mm Weight: 16g Metal: Uncirculated Mintage: 65,000 Mint: Austrian Mint Supersaurs: Ornithomimus Velox Denomination: €3 Diameter: 34 mm Weight: 16g Metal: Uncirculated Mintage: 65,000 Mint: Austrian Mint BRITISH ANTARCTIC TERRITORY (www.pobjoy.com) Centenary of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Death: Endurance Denomination: 50p Diameter: 27.3mm Weight: 8g Metal: Unc. Cupro Nickel Mintage: 2,750 Mint: Pobjoy Mint 150th Anniversary of the…