Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 31 i Coin Collector

I recently attended the BANS (British Association of Numismatic Societies) autumn weekend in Lichfield. It was great to spend a few days among fellow coin enthusiasts and learn more about the world of numismatics, where there are so many different areas to explore. Among the fascinating talks on offer were those covering the Hog money of the Somers’ Isles (modern-day Bermuda) and the Lenborough Hoard project. What I wasn’t expecting was to be amazed by the humble £1 coin. In an entertaining presentation, titled ‘Pounds! There Are More Varieties Than You Think!’, delegates were taken on a journey through the many different designs for a coin that, I have to admit, I have taken little notice of in the past. The modern £1 coin was first introduced on 21 April…

A major exhibition, opening 4 April 2025, will showcase finds from the Thames foreshore and explore the role of mudlarks in uncovering thousands of years of human history. The River Thames has been a centre of human activity for over 10,000 years. Below its waters lay lost or discarded items that paint a picture of Britain’s past, from prehistoric communities along the foreshore, to the arrival of Romans who founded Londinium and Vikings who travelled by water to expand their territory into Britain. ‘Secrets of the Thames: Mudlarking London’s Lost Treasures’ will include many never-before-seen finds that have recently joined the museum’s collection. It was recently announced that the Mint of Finland will be closed. The board said that the decision was based on global payment changes and weakened business…

On 28 August, a ‘Breaking News’ alert interrupted many coin collectors’ peaceful summer holidays: the Mint of Finland, Finland’s national mint, unexpectedly announced its ‘voluntary’ closure. The company’s board justified this drastic step by citing ‘global changes in payments’ and ‘deteriorating business prospects’. Although the Mint of Finland will continue to fulfil its existing contracts until spring 2025, it will not be accepting any new orders. All employees will be let go once the current projects are completed. Is this development yet another sign of the waning significance of cash in our increasingly digital society? The coin industry has been undergoing significant changes in recent years: • The Royal Mint of Belgium closed its doors on 1 January 2018, a decision taken by the Belgian government as part of its…

In previous issues of Coin Collector, I have talked about the coins of the Roman emperor Gallienus. In this article, I will look at Gallienus’ successor, Claudius II. Gallienus’ assassination outside Milan in 268 left the purple available to anyone with the power to grasp it. The army proclaimed Claudius and so began a short reign of some two years. Claudius was probably born around 214 and was, like so many of the so-called soldier emperors of the late-3rd century, of Danubian extraction. The vast majority of Claudius’ coins are the radiate antoniniani that had become the universal coinage of the empire in the last couple of decades. These had a tiny silver content and will sometimes appear to be silvered. Nonetheless, they had a low face value and large…

Æthelred II ‘The Unready’ – 978–1013/1014–16: The eldest son of Eadgar, Æthelred became king at the mere age of 12 following the brutal murder of his half-brother Edward (Figure 6). Young and easy to manipulate, he came to depend on his councillors for their prudent advice – an aspect in which they badly let him down. Though his reign is noted for its economic reforms and a high standard for the English coinage, it was marred by Scandinavian raids, periods of acute social instability and famine. Initially adopting a policy of paying the invaders to go away, Æthelred abruptly U-turned in 1002 and massacred many ethnic Danes resident in England. This policy backfired spectacularly, causing more Scandinavians to take up arms against him. Displaced from the throne in 1013 by Swein…

LE Bruun auction realises over £12 million On 14 September, Stack’s Bowers Galleries conducted the first auction of coins from the LE Bruun Collection in the ballroom of the Odd Fellow Palace in Copenhagen, Denmark. When the last of the 286 lots crossed the block, €14,820,900 (£12,341,882) in Scandinavian coins had been sold to collectors and dealers worldwide (all prices include buyer’s premium). The highlight of the event was the extremely rare Danish 1496 King Hans gold noble, which doubled its pre-sale estimate to sell for €1.2 million, a new world record for any Scandinavian coin at auction and the first to exceed a price of €1 million (lot 1001). Unique in private hands, the King Hans gold noble is the crown jewel of Scandinavian numismatics, being one of the…

An Ashdown Forest Helmet silver unit of c.50–40 BC struck by the Regini tribe of West Sussex was offered at the latest Chris Rudd auction on 15 September (lot 6). This extremely fine example, struck in good-quality silver and beautifully centred, showed all the key points, including the horned helmet, like the bronze helmet found in the Thames by Waterloo Bridge, and the little hidden face above the horse that had a ring at the end of its nose. The spokes of the wheel were all curved, creating the effect of a wheel in motion. This very rare coin, found at Lewes, East Sussex, on 23 March 2017, achieved £1,800. SOLD FOR £1,800 A unique and unpublished coin from the reign of David I of Scotland (1124–53) that was minted…

My morning ritual includes a cup of coffee and an attempt to answer the many emails received overnight. This can be exciting, as you never know what someone will be sending an inquiry about. My handling of the ‘Great Kentucky Hoard’ of Civil War gold started with a brief email and a blurry picture. Unfortunately, the vast majority of emails are about coins with little value. There is so much misinformation circulating on the internet that it confuses anyone trying look up the value of a coin. This has been taken to a new level recently as posts on social media and elsewhere make outrageous claims about the value of common coins. In the United States, the most recent one was perhaps the silliest one seen in years. The online…

7 October – Baldwins 399 Strand, London WC2R 0LX baldwins.co 8 October – Noonans 16 Bolton Street, Mayfair, London W1J 8BQ www.noonans.co.uk 9 October – Tennants Harmby Road, Leyburn DL8 5SG www.tennants.co.uk 9 October – Toovey’s Spring Gardens, Washington, West Sussex RH20 3BS www.tooveys.com 13 October – Nomos Auf der Mauer 9, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland nomosag.com 14–18 October – Christoph Gärtner Steinbeisstraße 6+8, 74321 Bietigheim-Bissingen, Germany www.auktionen-gaertner.de 16 October – Noonans 16 Bolton Street, Mayfair, London W1J 8BQ www.noonans.co.uk 21–24 October – Sincona Limmatquai 112, CH-8001 Zurich, Switzerland auktionen.sincona.com 22 October – Noonans 16 Bolton Street, Mayfair, London W1J 8BQ www.noonans.co.uk 6 November – Halls Bowmen Way, Battlefield, Shrewsbury SY4 3DR fineart.hallsgb.com 19 November – Sovereign Rarities 17–19 Maddox Street, London W1S 2QH www.sovr.co.uk…

The numismatic market of eastern Europe has been thriving with the growing economic power of recent decades. So, it is recommended to take a closer look at coin mintings originating from eastern territories. Some specimens may not be easily identified as true treasures. After the proclamation of the independent state of Czechoslovakia, with its new capital city of Prague, on 28 October 1918, a new currency system was urgently required. The first coins for use by the public in koruna, divided by 100 into sub-units of haléř (Czech) or halier (Slovak), only came into circulation from 1921–24. But several rare trials with a year indication of 1920 have survived. They were made for a coin competition jury in the traditional Kremnica mint in Slovakia, one of the oldest mints in…

Our story starts in the year 978, with Æthelred the newly anointed king of England at the mere age of 14. The second son of Eadgar and member of the so-called ‘House of Wessex’, he had probably been placed on the throne thanks to the conniving of his relatives and ministers. His elder brother, Edward, had been brutally murdered after just three years of rule. Although Eadgar’s reign had been stable and peaceful, it is during Æthelred’s rule that the fortunes of England as a nation state take something of a downturn (Figure 1). A common historical trope is that Æthelred was a tremendously bad king, born out of his epithet the ‘Unready’. However, this is a somewhat grotesque simplification – ‘Unready’ derives from the Anglo-Saxon word unræd, which means…