Hi all, I am branching out, I collect modern world since I like the designs and they are inexpensive. Also US of course. I want to start collecting British coins, before 1800. What are the popular ways to assemble a set of these coins?? Subjects, denominations??? I really know nothing about it. Thanks much Toy
Aside from gathering a complete date set, which would cover everything, Brit coins have a tendency to limit "subject" collections, since the obverse subject is always the current monarch, and the reverses are usually coats of arms, St. George and the Dragon, or Britannia. I know of quite a few folks who collect copper minors by date.
yeah Hey Roy, yeah thats what I mean. I do want to make some kind of set if I can. Maybe a particular Monarch?? Tony
I learned that "Big Silver Ones (Crowns)" are always a good place to start From a British couple who we lived across the hall (Apt-Flat) from us when I was stationed in Germany. Wonderful people Archie & Adrienne who happened to collect world coins too. Bone
You can always collect tokens too, this is my latest acquisition, whoops, second latest This is 45 mm across, 5mm thick and weighs in almost 3ozs.
Some of the tokens are great check out my avatar that is a token from the Island of Angalsy for a Copper mining corperation, great looking druid. As for Crowns if you go for the modern comm type they are easy enough to find :smile De Orc
Well done. They aren't easy to find, and when you do they are usually a tad more than the face value.
Tokens I see tokens are pretty interesting. All the other Brit stuff I have looked at is pretty boring, like Roy said the same thing on the obverse and reverse. Doesn't seem like any fun to collect these. I will do more searching. Maybe a type set of each ruler might be OK we'll see Thanks Tony
If you want interesting then try going a lot earlier like Celtic :smile there you will find some very interesting coins, have a look at this site http://www.celticcoins.com Run by a guy called Chris Rudd and he knows his stuff or if you dont want to go that far back then try Modrtn Commems in Silver or CupNick not overly expensive. I have to say though if you look at any circulated set of coinage it is very much of a one ness to it. De Orc
Brit ....... Hi De Orc, After looking through some books today I think I am going to go with Stuarts and Hanovers, with type coins of the Monarchs. From what I have seen, I like these types. Tony
Definatly some nice coins in amongst that lot :thumb: just wait till you hit the Gold LOL hope that you have deep pockets LOL (Some of them are fairly reasanoble ) have fun and dont forget lots of scans as your collection grows :hatch: De Orc :eat:
For cheap coins, the first British Monarch is Charles II. He was the first to have machined coins and everything before (except a pattern shilling for Oliver Cromwell), was hand-hammered and is now very expensive. The easiest to get for his successor James II is the notorious "gun money" which had different dates for every month in 1690. Anne had some pattern farthings made but those are very expensive. Best to collect King George coppers. There are six kings named George and starting with #6 and going backwards is actually rather easy and fun, since they're easy to find in junk boxes and are very cheap indeed. #6 1937-1952, silver coinage for circulation ended during the second world war and cu/nickel shillings etc. are very cheap. Farthings, hay'pennies and pennies are almost worthless.... #5 1910-36, in lower grades these are just as common as #6. #4 1820-30 These are rather expensive, but easilly affordable. #3 1760-1820 The reason there are so many British tokens fro this era was that George III didn't mint any copper coins for much of his reign, but there are a few, including the famous cartweels... #2 1721-60 Farthings and ha'pennies only, and these are rather rare. #1 1714-21 Same as #2, but harder to find, as he didn't last as long. Remember, from the fall of Rome to the reign of Charles II, British coins are very rare.
Birmingham Workhouse Tokens. Krasnaya Vityaz, I have a couple of these tokens.They are quite scarce pieces.There is a copper Sixpence (6d.),which is a huge copper piece,but this is extremely rare.The Penny (1d.) tokens often turn up from time to time. Aidan.
