What is your oldest British Commonwealth coin?

Mine so far is a Roman British AE3 (not sure what denomination that is?) of the Emperor Constantius II (ruled 324-337 as a co-ruler with Emperor Constantine I,the Great) struck at the Londinium Mint (London).

It has a laureate portrait facing left on the obverse,& what looks like a fortress or wall on the reverse.

The catalogue reference number is S3985. I think that this is a Sear number rather than a Spink's number.

I picked it up for NZ$85 off my boss yesterday.

Please don't ask for photos,as I haven't yet got the facilities to do pictures.

Aidan.

 

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Commodus Denarius. 186 AD. M COMM ANT P FEL AVG BRIT, laureate head right / LAETITIAE AVG, laetitia standing left, holding corn ears & rudder on a globe. RSC 279. Londinium

 

Drusus,that is a very nice Roman British Denarius.Perhaps the mintmark ended up not being struck on the coin due to the planchet being slightly too small.

I wish I had a coin that was struck at the Camulodunum Mint (Colchester) & the rebel Roman British mint.

Aidan.

 

Nothing older than Victoria lol... so not even the same league I guess, but do have a 1898 Canadian large cent.

 

Troodon,have you managed to find the 'H' mintmark of the Heaton's Mint,Birmingham (England) in the lower part of the reverse of the 1898 Canadian 1c.? I have got this coin as well.

Aidan.

 

Why should any coins BEFORE the term "British Commonwealth" that appeared in somewhere the 1800s be considered as one? You might as well make a topic about "What is your oldest British coins"

 

Gxseries,the term 'British Commonwealth coin' applies to any coin that has been struck or in circulation on the territory of the British Commonwealth.

Aidan.

 

My oldest so far is a Henry III Shortcross (1216-1247) Nichole on London Spink 1356A 7a subtype. I need to scan it at some point tried to photograph it, but it's been slabbed very naughty, and becuase of that does not photograph well, but on the bright side because it was slabbed and not graded right for a hammered coin, it allowed me to pick it up for a good price in this hot market right now

 

RayCanada,I also picked up an English Short Cross 1d.Mine is S1357C though.I have a small,but growing collection of British Isles hammered coins.I had also picked up a Scots 1d. of King Alexander III (ruled 1280-86),whose death paved the way for Robert the Bruce's accession to the Scots throne in 1306 after a civil war & English intervention in Scotland's affairs.

Aidan.

 

Not a great pic (just a quicky scan), but I guess this would be mine...



Crispus (317 - 326 A.D.)
Attribution: RIC 218 (RIC VII)
Mint: London, PLON

Obverse: CRISPVS NOBIL C, Helmeted, cuirassed bust left
Reverse: BEATA TRAN_QLITAS, Globe on Altar inscribed VO TIS XX, *** above, PLON in exergue

Size: 20mm
Weight: 3.02 grams

From Forvm...

 

great looking crispus

 

Is there a prize?

 

Mike,that is a very nice piece of Ancient British gold.The Ancient British people were very tribal.The most famous of the Ancient British tribes was the Iceni,whose monarch,Queen Boudicca (Boadicea) revolted against the Romans in around 60 AD.

Some people say that the Cornish & the Welsh are the descendants of the Ancient British people.It is hard to say,as there is no trace of the Ancient British language,apart from what is inscribed on their coins.

Aidan.

 

I got a heavily cleaned but nice detail Charles shilling. Got it from Littleton (yikes!!) some years ago - part if a hoard discovered in the UK some years ago.

 

Another interesting thing is that by the time these coins were minted,the British tribes were already using Roman/Latin lettering on their coins.I guess they saw Roman coins and attempted to copy them.The reverse of this particular coin says "CAMV" which I assume is probably an abbereviation of their tribal name.The obverse has CVNO,presumably for Cunabelin , High King of Prydein (Britain).I'm not sure and might have my dates wrong but it's fascinating stuff anyway.
Here's a more detailed article about this,apparently the CAMV stands for Camulodunum (Colchester).
http://www.predecimal.com/p1celtic.htm

 

There is now some Archaeological evidence, that has led to some alternate understandings of British history with the Roman and later periods. A short summary would be that the Roman empire and England had been trading with each other for a long time and that by the time of the Roman invasion Rome had client Kings/Tribal leaders and it was by invitation of one of these tribes/Client King's, I can not remember the name, but the details was that their land was being occupied by a rival tribe and the client king invited Rome to Aid him thus paving the way for a full occupation, the theory is though that by this time some Britons of power had all ready become Romanized based off of Archaeological evidence from their villas and coinage. I wish I could recall the name of the documentary I saw about this err, it's frustrating.​

 

Recently a report on DNA in British subjects living in Britian showed that they were, and that includes the English as well. As to "no trace of the ancient british language apart from on coins" that's not true at all. There are plenty of inscriptions and ancient British is very much like Welsh and Breton.

Also, the report, which was in today's NY TIMES, claims that speakers of early ENGLISH were resident in southeast Britian in Claudius's time.

 

Aiden and anyone else interested...

My oldest Commonwealth coins in alphabetical order are:

Austrailian 1935 Florin and a 1935 2 Shillings.

Canadian 1935 Dime, Quarter and Dollar.

Great Britain 1935 Shilling and 1935 Crown.

Irish 1935 6 Pence.

New Guinea 1935 Shilling.

New Zealand 1935 Shilling and a 1935 half-Crown.

Clinker

 

Clinker,that is a very nice collection you have got there.The Australian King George V 2/- coins are dual-denominated.

The Canadian 1935 silver $1 was Canada's first circulating commemorative coin.It was issued to commemorate King George V's Silver Jubilee,as was the British 1935 Crown (5/-).The reverse design of the British 1935 Crown is not an attractive design,but it has led them to being nicknamed as the 'Rocking Horse Crown'.

The 2 New Zealand coins you have got there are of interest,as the 1935 Threepence (written as '3d.') is a scarce coin (40,000 pieces) & the 1935 Crown has a mintage of 764 pieces for circulation & 364 pieces struck in Proof.

Irish coins have always been popular with British Commonwealth numismatists,as are British Pacific Islands coins,such as those from Fiji & New Guinea.

Aidan.

 

Canada - 1857 Bank of Upper Canada 1/2 Penny
- 1888 5 Cents

Australia - 1951 Penny

British Caribbean Terr. - 1955 5 Cents

Great Britian - 1773 Half Penny
- 1806 Farthing

India - 1904 1 Rupee

Jamaica - 1932 Farthing

States of Jersey - 1877 12th Shilling

New Zealand - 1936 Three Pence