Known for accelerating Allied efforts to read German naval messages, Alan Turing led a team at Bletchley park that eventually cracked the code to the Enigma machine. The Engima machine was a device that encrypted German messages, and without breaking it, it is thought that Britain and its allies might not have countered the German […]
On 21st June 2022, we marked the 40th Birthday of our future King, the Duke of Cambridge. And of course, appropriately for a significant royal milestone, there’s a brand-new Silver Proof £5 to honour the occasion, which has been specially authorised by Guernsey. Plus, there’s a particularly stunning design gracing the reverse of this new […]
The Industrial Revolution rapidly gained pace during Queen Victoria’s reign all because of the power of steam. Victorian engineers developed bigger, faster and more powerful machines that could run whole factories. This led to a massive increase in the number of factories (particularly in textile factories or mills) in Britain. By 1870, over 100,000 steam […]
In 1887 for her Golden Jubilee, Queen Victoria authorised a new portrait for circulating coinage, as well as a new denomination. This saw the introduction of the Double Florin, which later led to the loss of Barmaid’s jobs and only circulated for 3 years. Featuring a brand-new portrait of the Queen that became colloquially known […]
The Platinum Jubilee has been the collecting event of our lifetimes. With sell-outs abound there have been some fantastic releases. Hand on my heart, there are many more than five Platinum Jubilee commemoratives that I think deserve to be in the most exclusive collections but today I have challenged myself to limit my recommendations down […]
There’s big news coming out of The Royal Mint this morning, with the announcement of a brand new £5 coin series being issued to honour Her Majesty’s record-breaking reign. You can sign up to get ahead of the crowd here or continue reading to find out why that might be the difference between you securing […]
This year I’ve seen a huge range of coins issued to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee, but I’ve never seen anything like this… In fact, there’s not been anything like this before in The Royal Mint’s 1,100-year history. Earlier today, The Royal Mint unveiled the largest coin it has ever produced. The gold coin, with a […]
The East India Company have just released their FIRST EVER 7-sided 50p coin. It honours perhaps the most famous Aesop’s Fable – the Hare & the Tortoise with a stunning design and an edition limit that will have collectors scrambling to get their hands on it. Click the points below to find out more about […]
The late 1930s was a tumultuous time for the Royal Family. Edward VIII announced his abdication on 11 December 1936 to the shock of the world and the outrage of the Royal Family. Edward’s successor – his brother and our Queen’s father, George VI was furious at the abdication and made it his mission to […]
I want to take you back 150 years ago today and on a hop across the pond to what is now Canada. But Canada wasn’t Canada until 1967 and there were no Canadian coins until 1870. When the UK transferred most of its remaining land in North America to Canada in the summer of 1870, […]