Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 40 i Coin Collector

Welcome to Coin Collector

In ‘New Coins’ this month, we feature a coin marking the 50th anniversary of the Australian honours system. Dating from 1975, the medals for these awards were designed by artist Stuart Devlin (1931–2018), who also designed Australia’s first decimal coinage. In these two roles, he helped Australia establish a national identity separate from the UK. Introduced in 1966, Australia’s decimal currency replaced a system of money inherited from the UK. As well as helping to establish Australia’s national identity, the new coinage assisted the country in its economic independence, especially trade with countries also using a decimal currency. When the decision to switch to a decimal system was taken in 1963, Devlin was one of six artists who took part in a competition to design the reverse side of the…

2 min

Coin Collector|Issue 40

ANA Matters

In a couple of months, the American Numismatic Association (ANA) will be conducting the 2025 World’s Fair of Money (Figure 1). This year’s convention will be held in Oklahoma City, OK, from 19 to 23 August. Dealers and collectors from around the world will be in attendance, including many from the United Kingdom. During one of the most recent World’s Fair of Money conventions, the greatest collections of British coins (Tyrant Collection) ever assembled privately was on show. Opportunities to see coins like this in person are what makes the annual event special. Meeting the individuals who have taken the time to share their collections is even better. The annual convention is also a time when the ANA Board of Governors are sworn into office. My wife, Mary Lynn Garrett,…

3 min

Coin Collector|Issue 40

Rarity from the Charlotte Mint

Among several highlights of the Stanley Gibbons Baldwin’s ancient, British and world coin auction on 9 July is an 1860 American gold $2½ from the Charlotte Mint (Figure 1). Charlotte Mint gold coins are some of the most desired items in numismatics today, ranging from scarce to extremely rare. Of the Charlotte Liberty Head quarter eagles, this coin is one of the scarcer dates. Featuring the Liberty Head and graded AU 58 by PCGS, the coin shows red toning and lustre across its surfaces. One of only 7,469 pieces struck, this is an extremely uncommon item, with just four recorded finer in the PCGS census. It has an estimate of £5,000–£7,000. The first United States branch mint, the Charlotte Mint was in Charlotte, NC, and specialised in gold coinage (Figure…

3 min

Coin Collector|Issue 40

The 9th Century AD

It was in the 7th century that the ancestor of the English penny – the Anglo-Saxon sceatta – emerged. In Northumbria, these coins were produced right through to the last half of the 9th century. However, in the south, something of a coin revolution was taking place. Around 760, King Offa of Mercia introduced what is known as the broad penny. Offa considered himself a rival of Charlemagne, and his monetary reforms saw the region’s previously Anglo-Saxon-style coins, morph into something much more international (Figure 1). At the time, Charlemagne’s Carolingian Empire was the biggest power block in Western Europe. So, it made sense for Offa to bring his currency into line with those of his largest trading partner. Offa’s broad pennies matched Charlemagne’s in size, weight and design, with…

3 min

Coin Collector|Issue 40

coin update

COTY nominations announced After a lengthy nomination process that started in January, the final nominations for the 2025 Coin of the Year awards have now been announced. An initial 550 coins were submitted for nomination, and these have now been narrowed down to the COTY 100, which contains 100 2024-dated coins from 38 countries, representing the output of 35 mints and central banks. This selection features 10 coins in 10 specific categories. Voting has already begun from a panel of over 100 judges, who are casting ballots to select one winning coin in each category. A second round of voting by that same expert panel will then choose one of those 10 category winners as the overall Coin of the Year. The categories are: Most Historically Significant Coin; Best Contemporary…

10 min

Coin Collector|Issue 40

Lessons from the Graveyard of Collecting Crazes

Once upon a time, collecting phonecards was considered a smart investment. Back in the 1990s, telcos across Europe flooded the market with limited-edition cards – every sport, city and cartoon character had its own plastic square. Prices shot up, conventions boomed and catalogues struggled to keep up. But eventually, reality caught up. Too many editions, too little meaning. Today, those once-prized cards sit in shoeboxes, worth little more than their printing cost. Stamp collectors know the feeling. Countries like Mongolia, Grenada and Liberia churned out endless philatelic ‘masterpieces’ in the same era – Elvis stamps, Disney stamps, even space exploration themes. They were colourful, shiny and utterly disconnected from actual postal use. And they all had one thing in common: no one really wanted them a decade later. Then there…

4 min

Coin Collector|Issue 40

Hoards Found Without Metal Detectors

In the last article in this series, we looked at how Samuel Pepys recovered a large hoard of guineas he had organised the burial of several months before. Many hoards were also no doubt retrieved later by the people who had concealed them. This article is concerned with those hoards that were not recovered and were instead found by others years later. We will look at hoards found without metal detectors in this article; generally, although not always, these are older finds, from the first half of the 20th century and earlier. There have been stories of individuals finding buried treasure since records began. Some of these are apocryphal, such as that of the 15th-century peddler of Swaffham, where a series of dreams lead the central character to dig up…

7 min

Coin Collector|Issue 40

new coins

Anniversary of Royal Observatory, Greenwich A new brilliant uncirculated £2 coin from the Royal Mint celebrates the 350th anniversary of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Dedicated to discovery and exploration, the Royal Observatory, has played a crucial role in ‘perfecting the art of navigation’ and accurate timekeeping. The reverse features an intricate design by Henry Gray, which depicts two key scientific elements that have contributed to some of the historic discoveries made by the Royal Observatory – the Prime Meridian and a 24-hour dial representing the Shepherd Gate Clock. Running from pole to pole, the Prime Meridian covers 20,000km and separates the eastern and western hemispheres. It passes through eight countries and crosses three continents, and for nearly two thirds of its length, it passes over the sea. Any north–south line…

12 min

Coin Collector|Issue 40

auction update

A coins, medals, militaria and banknotes auction was conducted by Warwick & Warwick on 18 June. The joint highest selling item of the auction was an 1826 crown proof (FDC), which achieved a hammer price of £10,500 (lot 390). The obverse showed an uncrowned portrait of King George IV facing to the left by William Wyon. On the reverse, a crowned, garnished shield of arms with crest was centrally placed, which had a legend around and a banner below. SOLD FOR £10,500 NAC held the sale of the ‘Sicilian Scholar’s Collection: Coins of the Kingdom of Sicily from the Arab Conquest to the Angevins’ and coins and medals from Italian and foreign mints on 10 June. One of the highlights was a rare double papal ducat of Pope Paul II…

7 min

Coin Collector|Issue 40

The Power of Palladium

Palladium is a precious metal that is not often used for coin minting. With its silvery white appearance, it may easily be confused with silver coinage. But attention – it is much more precious and valuable. If you have found a chance to acquire a palladium coin for the price of silver, you really have discovered a treasure! Besides its occasional use for coinage, palladium is an industrial metal. Today, it is in demand and production for catalytic converter technology, medical technology, the electrical industry, for jewellery and many other sectors. Ergo, the respective economic situation is also reflected in the price of palladium. Palladium is a relatively young material. It was discovered by chance in 1802 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston (1766–1828), when the material was left…

7 min

Coin Collector|Issue 40

Zimbabwe

The paper money story of Zimbabwe starts early in British colonial times when the territory was chartered in 1889 to the British South Africa Company led by Cecil Rhodes. Paper money first appeared in 1896 when the Standard Bank of South Africa issued £1, £5 and £10 notes from its new office in Salisbury (now Harare). Ten shilling-notes followed in 1920. Four other banks joined Standard, and theirs was the only paper money until 1938, when the newly established Southern Rhodesia Currency Board took over. All these early commercial bank issues are rare today (Figure 1). COLONY OF SOUTHERN RHODESIA The colony of Southern Rhodesia was formally established in 1923 to take over from the British South Africa Company, and once its Currency Board was set up, new notes were…

7 min