Innehållsförteckning för Issue 36 från Coin Collector

In this month’s edition of the magazine, we include details about the latest Trial of the Pyx, which is an annual event dating from 1248 to test the quality of coins produced by The Royal Mint. This year, for the first time, sixpences struck with silver extracted from medical and industrial X-ray films are being tested. Although an innovation, these sixpences will be taking part in a process with well-established procedures and ceremonies that have developed over centuries. Today, as in the past, coins are randomly selected throughout the year from every batch of each denomination struck, sealed in bags containing 50 coins each and locked away in pyx boxes for testing at the trial. For centuries, the boxes were stored in the Pyx Chamber in Westminster Abbey, where the…

HM Treasury has announced the appointment of Chris Walton as non-executive chair of The Royal Mint. Mr Walton joins The Royal Mint for a three-year term succeeding Graham Love, who served as chair from December 2018. Mr Walton has spent the last two decades as a full-time non-executive director across organisations of different sizes and sectors. The United States Mint has launched a redesigned version of its educational Coin Classroom website (kids.usmint.gov). The new site features a more streamlined look, refreshed graphics, simpler navigation and improved mobile responsiveness. Cambridge Coins was targeted twice in 24 hours by thieves with tens of thousands pounds worth of stock stolen on 20 February. Initially, two men targeted the shop using a ladder and a brick at just after 3am, and it is believed…

Each year starts off in numismatics with a bang! The Florida United Numismatists (FUN) is one of the most anticipated shows of the year, with dealers from around the world flocking to Orlando, FL, with its warm climate and throngs of eager numismatic buyers. The very next week is the New York International Numismatic Convention (NYINC). This show is totally focused on ancient and world coins, with US coins not even allowed to be displayed if they were produced after 1815, and it is also well known for its line-up of numismatic auctions. The Thursday night American Numismatic Society (ANS) gala is my favourite reason to attend the show. It is a great opportunity to support an organisation devoted to serious numismatic education. For the last few years, after FUN…

In AD 410, Rome finally withdrew from Britannia, which stood at the outer reaches of the crumbling Empire. The period that immediately followed was classed as the Dark Ages. Yet, this term was coined by scholars who viewed Rome as the pinnacle of civilisation. The reality was more complex. In Britannia – England and Wales – mining, farming and the arts continued to flourish. While it is true that barter slowly replaced money for small, everyday transactions, Britain continued to trade with and be influenced by the larger world. We know this because when the earliest Anglo-Saxon coins started to be minted, those small gold ‘shillings’ were modelled on the tremisses produced in Merovingian France. These appeared between AD 620–75 and are usually called thrymsa by numismatists. These coins were…

The world coin auction at Coin Cabinet on 20 February included a 1931 silver 100 mils value from the British Mandate of Palestine – the key date in the series (lot 86). On the obverse, Palestine was inscribed in Hebrew, English and Arabic, with an olive branch at the centre and the date in English and Arabic on either side. The reverse featured the denomination in Hebrew, English and Arabic. Graded MS63, it went under the hammer for £15,000. SOLD FOR £15,000 Noonans held the sale of ‘A Collection of Scottish Coins, the Property of a Gentleman (Part III)’ on 19 February. The top-selling item from the sale was a very rare groat from the reign of James IV (1488–1513) (lot 1128). Struck in Edinburgh from the heavy coinage (type…

The World Money Fair in Berlin isn’t just an annual industry get-together; it also marks the start of hunting season for collectors of rare and highly limited fair-exclusive coins. Whether it is circulation coin sets from Belgium, the Netherlands and Japan (and this year, Finland and Switzerland as well), the annual Panda medal, the Berlin Kookaburra or a newly introduced German coin card signed by the artist, treasure hunters have their hands full every year. But the first few minutes are crucial if you want to get your hands on these coveted items, which are initially sold for around €15 to €30 and can fetch prices of €100 to €200 while the event is still ongoing. If you once again came up empty-handed during this year’s gold rush, don’t worry…

For the 1890 Penny Postage Jubilee, which celebrated 50 years of the Uniform Penny Post, a commemorative medal was produced by Spink. Exceptional rarities exist for this medal because the medal was first struck with a spelling error in that ‘SYSTEM’ was spelt incorrectly as ‘SISTEM’ (Figure 1). A proof medal in bronze with the same error is also known in The Postal Museum, London. I was inspired to tell the story of the medal after giving a Zoom talk to the Caledonian Philatelic Society, where one of the attendees, Stewart Gardiner, told me he had received a bronze medal with this rare error from Margaret Morris, which had belonged to her late husband, Edwin. Later, Stewart contacted me to say they had both decided to gift the medal to…

13 March – Noonans 16–17 Bolton Street, Mayfair, London W1J 8BQ www.noonans.co.uk 13 March – St James’s 10 Charles II Street, St James’s, London SW1Y 4AA stjauctions.com 13–15 March – Stack’s Bowers Hotel Baur au Lac, Talstrasse 1, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland stacksbowers.com 14 March – Mowbray Collectables West Plaza Hotel, Wellington, New Zealand www.mowbrays.co.nz 16 March – Chris Rudd PO Box 1500, Norwich NR10 5WS celticcoins.com 16 March – Heritage 2801 West Airport Freeway, Dallas, TX 75261, USA www.ha.com 17–19 March – Künker Nobbenburger Straße 4a, D-49076 Osnabrück, Germany www.kuenker.de 18–19 March – Lockdales 52 Barrack Square, Martlesham Heath, Ipswich IP5 3RF www.lockdales.com 19 March – Stack’s Bowers Griffin Studios, 1550 Scenic Avenue, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, USA stacksbowers.com 26 March – Tennants Auction Centre, Harmby Road, Leyburn, North Yorkshire…

In the ‘Treasure Hunt’ columns on coins for Lunar New Year and the Olympic Games, I have already demonstrated how modern coin producing countries and companies are always looking for new records to encourage collectors, investors and general customers to spend large amounts on their hobby. ‘Big, bigger, biggest’ seems to be the motto of today. And the hunt for large quantities of precious metals supports this trend. Some of these rare, limited editions seldom ever come to the market again, so comparable prices are hard to find. Many pieces are conserved in the treasure chests of rich families and entrepreneurs, in the safes of banks and in public collections, who hardly have the need to sell for amounts that are just ‘pocket money’ in their eyes. CONQUEST OF THE…