Updates on other numismatic news.
On 11 June, everyone from The Sun to Heart FM were talking about one thing – Peter Pan coins. Why were Peter, Hook and Tinkerbell the talk of the town and what does it mean for collectors? From Neverland to everywhere The world’s first Peter Pan coins have been issued in aid of Great Ormond […]
It’s 1646, the English Civil War is raging and Cromwell’s forces are laying siege to your town. The flow of money (and more) has all but stopped, but the people need to trade and soldiers need to be paid, so what do you do? You reach for the cutlery and cups… The fascinating story of […]
The Sovereign is without rival as the United Kingdom’s premier Gold Coin, with rich history dating back well over 500 years. It epitomises all that is British. Traded across the world during the 19th Century and early 20th Century, it became known as “The Chief Coin of the World”, whilst today’s modern Proof Sovereigns show […]
The history of counterfeit money is as old as currency itself and, despite the use of the most sophisticated modern technology, the battle still persists today between the banks and the fraudsters. There was almost £30m worth of fake “round” £1 coins in circulation at the time the new 12-sided £1 was introduced in March […]
The first truly Canadian coin was struck between 1912 and 1914. It would be an interesting coin for any serious collector, given its first-of-a-kind status, but the story around the gold $10 coins struck over a century ago is one of mystery and discovery. It’s a story that has made the 1912-1914 Canadian Gold $10 […]
Long before Uber became the enemy of taxi drivers across the country, there was a silver coin that Victorian cab drivers simply hated. The coin was in circulation for less than 20 years, but that was plenty long enough to cause offence to horse and carriage drivers. It all came about because people were too […]
Coins are miniature pieces of art. Often designed by some of the world’s leading artists and produced by craftsmen drawing on centuries of minting experience, you should never overlook the quality of a coin’s design. The best designs create demand and raise a coin from being just another issue into something exceptional. Don’t believe me? […]
To mark the 200th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s birth, the Isle of Man exclusively commissioned renowned sculptor Luigi Badia to produce modern interpretations of the portraits used on our coinage during Victoria’s reign. The results are remarkable. Here you can take a behind-the-scenes look at how the portraits went from concept to coin. Stage 1 […]
Late last year, The Royal Mint held the first ever historic coin auction in its 1,000 plus year history. The star of the show was meant to be an 1839 Una & the Lion £5 gold coin, which has been described as the “most beautiful of all English coins” and had an upper estimate of […]
On the morning of 19 February this year, something remarkable happened. I tried to access The Royal Mint website and was informed that I was in a queue with over 100,000 people in front of me and that I wouldn’t be able to access the website for well over an hour. It was all because […]