News & Blog

Piedforts (a french term literally meaning"heavy foot") are double thickness coins usually used as presentation pieces. In recent years these hefty coins have proved popular amongst collectors and now the Royal Mint has announced that their two "50 Years of the 50p" sets (one Military based and...

When we went to press with the second edition of Spend it? Save it? the latest mintage figures for the 2018 coins weren't available - well now they are and they make for some interesting reading... Of particular note are the numbers for the highly collected 50p coins which shows NO shield back...

Following on from the success of the first Gruffalo coin launched earlier this year, and to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Julia Donaldson's enduring children's classic, the Royal Mint is launching a second Gruffalo 50p coin, this time featuring the lovable beast meeting Mouse in the forest...

We've known for some time that the new £20 note will feature JMW Turner and one of his famous paintings "The Fighting Temeraire" but the final design was unveiled on October 10 and will feature the following anti-counterfeit measures:  large see-through window with a blue and gold foil on...

Well what do you know? MEDAL collecting is different from coin collecting in one very important way. Whilst the subjects of both hobbies are (generally) little circular metal disks, often made at the same place, there is one crucial difference. A coin is collected, is appreciated for itself,...

Stolen in a burglary at Haverhill, Suffolk earlier this year Family group stolen in a burglary earlier this year. 1) Basil Oliver Bradley, RA: 1939-1945 star, Africa Star, Burma Star, Defence & War, Territorial Efficiency, Police long service and the Dunkirk medal. 2) 1343 (later...

Two types of people THE recent unveiling of the Chew Valley Hoard of Norman Conquest era pennies at the British Museum seems to have caught the imagination of the public, or at least the press (see our own story on pages 38–40). Most newspapers, serious news websites and news programmes have...

The recent OMRS convention in Nottingham proved a great success and congratulations must go to all who made the effort to exhibit this year -  the standard was exceptionally high. The list of exhibits, exhibitors and awards made is as follows: In the Open Class: Christopher Bacon -...

OMSA and the numbers game I MUST CONFESS, I was wrong. Last month I said that I could probably list all the attendees at the forthcoming OMSA Convention were I to put my mind to it. Having just finished at the event I can confirm that whilst many of those in attendance were familiar faces and...

Stolen during a burglary in Hertfordshire recently:   Worshipful Company of Tylers and Bricklayers’ Renter Warden’s Badge Inscribed on reverse ‘ ‘Worshipful Company of Tylers and Bricklayers’ and ‘Renter Warden’ on a shield Waterloo medal issued to John Hamilton of the First Regiment...

The face of the future THE news that Alan Turing is to be the face on the new £50 probably didn’t come as much of a surprise to many. Yes, here at COIN NEWS, we quite liked the idea of Mary Anning featuring alongside a stegosaurus or two but Turing is a worthy choice. There was the inevitable...

The personal touch I SHALL apologise to regular readers in advance as I am about to go off on my semi-annual rant/plea regarding medal fairs and medal shows! I am writing this “comment” two weeks before the Orders and Medals Society of America (OMSA) Convention but I already know what it will...

All’s fair… IN “News and Views” this month there is a story about a D-Day Anniversary €50 coin struck at the Monnaie de Paris on June 6 and launched at the Pegasus Memorial Museum in conjunction with Samlerhuset. Striking coins “on the day” of an anniversary and having lavish launches for them...

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Look to the future, acknowledge the past IT was my intention to write this month about D-Day and the 75th anniversary of Operation Overlord; whilst this magazine goes on sale before the anniversary itself, it is safe to assume that on June 6, across Normandy and beyond, hundreds of thousands of...

Cashless or less cash? Following the recent “will we or won’t we . . .” interest in the proposed demise of our lowest coin denominations and the ever-growing call by the vociferous few for the banishment of all kinds of cash transactions, we have invited our regular columnist DR KERRY RODGERS to...

A homeless pair LIKE many of you, I suspect, I have “alerts” set up on my computer so that I’m told when there are mentions on-line about areas of interest to me and also, through a couple of specialist services, when items of interest come up for auction. Through Invaluable-alerts.com and...

One of a kind BACK in February the COIN NEWS team attended the Irish International Show in Dublin and had the privilege to handle (carefully of course) the unique 1952 penny pictured on this month’s front cover and which is now due to come up for auction at Baldwin’s of St James’s on June 12....