Penny Design Change

It's a big un, all 760 A4 size pages of it.

Syl.

 

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and it helped me identify my Edward I penny to a mint and class, previous to that i had no idea of how to go about it!

Turned out to be class 10A of Canterbury mint, pretty common and pretty cheap. But the thrill of having an unidentified penny, that you can research and not only attribute it to a monarch, but a class, a mint and a mintage period (in the case of that penny 1302-1307ish) now that is a good feeling when you've find out what it is you have.

It's kinda like hauling through changeand finding a coin you want, in a decent grade.

 

The challenges are what draw me into this. While I spend a great amount of time on American coinage and the process of making them, I need a new personal challenge.
Since most of these coins seem to be relatively cheap in cost, it seems to be a fascinating way to learn about the earliest forms of coinage. Like I said in an earlier post, I see dealers selling these coins all over the country. Most of the early pieces were struck by hand, and no two seem to be exactly alike. It kind of reminds me of the very early colonial pieces made here in the states. Many of these were struck over foriegn coins, other colony coins, and various size planchets that were milled down by hand afterwards.
This early process seems so intriguing to me.

 

Ah in the late 1700s and early 1800s we had a major coin crisis and we pinched alot of spanish stuff and overstruck those too, so it was happening in both countries at around the same time.

And as for hammered coins, it is indeed the case that no two are alike. the lack of a collar around the edges emphasises this difference as they would when minted, depending on the overall variance between the power used when hitting the dies with the hammer, could be minutely fatter or thinner, and the lack of a collar meant they weren't totally round.

The early milled stuff is like this too, hand presses minted them, they are milled with a collar but the cutting out of the blanks was not as precise as it is now, so they vary somewhat!

 

forgive the sloppy wording of the previous post, it's getting late over here...

 

I trade in the late empire Roman stuff from time to time and 16th century silver denars from Hungary and Serbia. Ancient Celtic strikes are also a side interest for me. Living in a country whose coinage from the late 18th century is considered old, the worries over new crapola coins seem more serious given the fact that the overall pool of materials is much smaller than that available on the European continent and in the UK.

Here we simply have far fewer coins which can be easily snapped up by investors who don't love the coinage and will never care for their historical significance.

 

I got hammered once in college. Woke up without a single coin in my pocket. Hammered and coins don't mixed with me but I seem to be collecting mainly 1800's type coins myself right now. It might make a nice sub topical club

 

Something like that, referring to the counterstamped portrait of Geo III of England on that of Charles III or IV of Spain.

Also since these counterstamped dollars were only worth 4/9d another saying of 'two kings heads not being worth a crown' was also occasionally heard.