Many detectorists, including myself, often find coins that date to Victorian or more recent times. Generally we consider such coins to be relatively common because of the large numbers produced and don't pay much attention to them. Are we missing a trick by doing so and is there a thriving market for such items, particularly those in good condition? Here are a few of my better condition examples of such coins.
It's collectible from the second it falls off the press, if someone deems it so. Everyone has a different standard of what they consider collectible. I know you Brits are rather jaded when it comes to Victorian and newer stuff (perhaps because it's so available to you), but we're not like that here in the States. ANY old silver is good when you dig it, is my opinion.
Yes, the newest stuff the U.S. Mint sells these days for prices over face must be deemed “collectible.” There is so much of it that I have thrown up my hands and have labeled it as “junk,” but somebody must want to add it to a collection. I draw the line at metal detector finds which are badly corroded or which had to be severely cleaned to figure out what they are, but there are those who would find them interesting.
Many people would be surprised to find out how tough the early years of the .500 silver are in really nice condition. This same applies to some of the Cu/ Ni and even a little of the decimal coinage. So as Lordmarcovan said "when it falls off the press" it becomes "collectible". So many of these are scarce simply because they were deemed uncollectible and nobody saved them. The early .500 coins weren't even sterling or good silver so why seek them out? Cu/ Ni was just mass produced junk masquerading as coins and decimals weren't coins at all, just new fangled pocket change.
I have found lots of the .500 silver coins dating from 1920-47. Here is a photo of some of them. These are all sixpences.
A coin becomes collectable when a least one person decides to keep the coin because it appeals to them in a certain way. A coin becomes valuable when another person decides to pay an extrinsic value for the coin. And so on, and so on.
As soon as the coin is minted and available yo the public. Only demand from the public can make a coin collectible.
I began collecting post 1860 Victorian pennies over 70 years ago as a schoolboy - they were plentiful, though not in good condition, and we all tried to make a complete collection from loose change which came our way. We also knew which were the hard dates to find, but Idon't recall any of us achieving that goal. Looking at my latest Spinks, it is easy to see why: even in F condition, many of them have 3-figure prices and even some are listed as costing thousands, so I have given up with my penny collection. But I still collect post 1860 coins, because they bring back many memories, and I have put together an almost complete set of 20th Century silver and brass threepenny bits, and an even bigger and better set of farthings. One advantage of these coins is that in EF and VF condition the prices ae within my budget. An advantage of living in Barcelona is that at the weekly coin market (every Sunday, Plaza Real) the prices are somewhat lower than in the UK, but the choice is of course limited so I have to buy from UK or other international dealers and pay a premium. I also put aside every modern BU coin that comes my way. They are only worth face value (as a rule: some rare Andorran, Slovenian and San Marino euro coins are exceptions). But I put aside BU coins because I remember when I first started work after university, a fellow colleague who learned that I was a coin collector gave me two rolls of UNC Eire pennies - dated 1928, when they first appeared - and one roll of ditto halfpennies, 36 coins in all, totally free. My grandchildren or great grandchildren might appreciate them some time in the future
Bardolph, thank you for giving us your interesting perspective on collecting. As I have said in some of my other posts, I have a collection but I am not a collector. I simply collect what I find with my metal detector. That is not to say that I don't enjoy my collection, because I do, but I wouldn't want to purchase coins to enlarge it. With regard to post 1860s pennies, I find many of those while searching for £1 coins in the UK with my metal detector because copper pennies give a very similar response to a £1 coin. This makes pound coin hunting in Victorian parks bit of a nightmare.
PS I meant my great grandchildren might one day appreciate some 30, 40 or 50 yr old BU Euro coins - my Irish pennies and halfpennies went years ago to fund my purchases
As a collector of BU coins you probably wouldn't appreciate having grey looking silver or green coloured copper coins in your collection.
I'm aware that the 1888 silver threepence shown above is a less common coin because only 518000 were minted that year. Normally around 3 million or more were issued each year
I can't tell what condition these are in. What I have trouble finding are the 20's dates of all the silvers. The 6P'sare only slightly easier with the toughest being the '23, '24,and '25 in nice attractive XF or better. I see very few Uncs. A lot of world silver gets very elusive in the early years after it has been debased. People just don't want to collect it. I have found lots of the .500 silver coins dating from 1920-47. Here is a photo of some of them. These are all sixpences.
Hi Cladking, thanks for your reply. After reading it I went through the sixpences shown in the photo and found that 23 of them were from the 1920s with a breakdown by year as follows: 1920 -1 1921 -3 1922 -3 1923 -0 1924 -4 1925 -0 1926 -3 1927 -1 1928 -8 Here are photos of the 1924s which are uncleaned detector finds.
But I put aside BU coins because I remember when I first started work after university, a fellow colleague who learned that I was a coin collector gave me two rolls of UNC Eire pennies - dated 1928, when they first appeared - and one roll of ditto halfpennies, 36 coins in all, totally free. My grandchildren or great grandchildren might appreciate them some time in the future[/QUOTE] The 1928 Irish Free State coins have substantial value, especially as rolled BU coins.
This is largely chance, no doubt, but despite high mintages the coins are elusive even in high end Fine condition because they weren't set aside and were allowed to be ground down in circulation. It wasn't until the war years when a few collectors began saving them by which time most were lower than VF condition. A lot of the 20's era silver is tough except in AG/ G/ VG.
Out of curiosity I tried placing one of the four uncleaned 1924 sixpences from the above photo into my ultrasonic cleaner for 20 seconds. I'm pretty impressed by the results.
This one's not at all jaded, only by the modern "collectors" releases which to me shouldn't even be called coins. They're not designed to be spent, but solely to part fools from their money. To me anything that is or was currency is desirable.