Are British coins fun to collect?

I love US coins, but lately they have been a bit lacking to me, so I was looking at UK coins and was amazed at the history - and prices.

I am really interested in Maundy coins, as well as earlier copper. Also the medieval hammered stuff is super cool.

Is this all fun to collect? I want to get into it.

 

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I collect more run of the mill British coins, but they were one of the first foreign series I got into and I like them a lot. In general I'd recommend branching out into world coins if you mostly do U.S. because there's just so much more out there. Instead of always just trying to get a little better grade on the same small group of coins you can pursue thousands and thousands of totally different options. "Fun" has a different meaning for everyone, but I'd certainly recommend it.

 

As much as I love ancients, I happen to love British coinage. I have spent the better part of a year building up my British coins. Focusing more on queen Victoria but many monarchs before and after.

Now I have hit the pricey snag since many medieval coins I want are more then my budget for a month.

I sill add them when I can. I admit I don't focus on copper, mainly silver.

 

yes fun.

 

Well I tend to collect a lot of British coins. I found US coins way too overpriced for run of the mill stuff. Paying a huge premium on a coin where there is a population of several hundred graded at MS65 or 67 is not my idea of exclusivity.

If GB interests you for its history then its a Great (pun intended) place to start. I mainly restrict my collection to late medieval and modern coins as these are easy to identify and verify. There are far too many fakes in the early medieval coinage and I find them harder to spot because of the lack of uniformity in the coins.

The history of the Tudors and subsequent dynasties are of interest to me and I find I read more about the monarch once I've acquired a coin of say Henry VI or VIII or Elizabeth I.

Moreover, there are so many denominations and monarchs to collect, that it almost becomes a full time job

Maundy sets are interesting as are the larger silver offerings and gold Angel, Guinea and Sovereign variants.

And then of course then there are other European countries to expand into, German States, France etc.

Good luck and hope to see many of your future acquisitions here.

 

That is a perfectly legitimate question in my opinion. After all, if one is from the US and has been collecting US coins all the time, one may wonder whether coins from the UK could be ... how shall we put it ... complicated.

So some may say yes, absolutely worth it, and somebody else may say, nah, it gets too unwieldy with all those centuries of old English/British coins. If somebody asked me, are ancient coins fun to collect, my answer would be something that (looking around ... aaah, no ancient folks here ...) certain other Coin Talk members would not share, hehe.

Christian

 

Coins that interest you are fun to collect. Period. My fun comes from German coins, but each to his own. If it appeals to you go for it.

 

British coins are certainly fun to collect, in my opinion. You have the actual GB coins, but also British colonies too.

Start with pre-decimal pennies, which are cheap, plentiful and 'large'. Then move into silver issues. It's fun, particularly in the US, since there is generally much less appreciation of world coins here, which generally translates to lower costs.

Hit the world bins at your LCS and have fun.

 

If you're interested, go for it!

 

You might even expand beyond coins of Great Britain once you get a taste of World history, geography, politics, and economy.

Would you like me to send you a complementary batch of World coins? I have some duplicates in the UK category. Just send me your mailing address by PM. Please make sure that your parents approve of the address you use. It might be best if you use your parent's office address or something like that.

 

Expand your horizon's you will never regret it.

 

Maundy coins can be really cool, particularly if you get the sets in the original boxes. Early in the reign of a monarch the mintages are low - but lately with QEII reigning for 65 years and being 91 years old they are giving out more and more of the coins in the Maundy Thursday ceremony.

 

I enjoy British coins - obviously I like the medieval coins (which can be expensive), but many of the pre-decimal series are varied and interesting. I also quite enjoy the modern decimal coins - there are a lot of great varieties with commemorative issues which illustrate British history (although the Royal Mint went a little mad last year - so far they haven't been as prolific this year, which is a good thing for my wallet...)

 

Hi, I have this British big penny is a (new pence) the year 1971 on it.

 

Isn't it a bit hard to get the newest Maundy issues? I don't know how many recipients are willing to part with them.

 

What can you tell me about it do that mean anything with the word new pence on is it worth anything.