News & Blog

The Year of the Ox Coins for the Chinese Lunar New Year are celebrated in the February issue of COIN NEWS - we also look at some of the rarities that have been discovered recently. Plus you get a chance to win your very own SILVER PROOF version of the numismatically fascinating "50th...

The Royal Mint has, today, announced its designs for 2021 they include: The 95th Birthday of Her Majesty the Queen on a £5 250th Anniversary of the birth of Sir. Walter Scott on a £2 The life and work of John Logie Baird on a 50p The 50th Anniversary of Decimal Day 2021 on a 50p ...

The spice of life THIS MONTH we carry a letter from a reader (page 87) asking whether or not it is time to rename some of the things we are currently calling “coins”. He points to Dr Kerry Rodgers’ article last month detailing various Christmas coins that included a 3D coin with a moving train...

A nice place to be A RECENT telephone call to the MEDAL NEWS offices alerted us to a “non-specialist” auction house that was recently offering a number of medal-related lots. That’s nothing new, many auctioneers will have little gems nestled amongst the brown furniture, silverware, pictures and...

Downs and ups AS WE go to press so England is going in to its second Lockdown, Wales is planning to come out of theirs and Scotland has a five tier system in place that, to my mind rather strangely, starts at tier 0 not tier 1! In short it’s all rather confusing and, if we’re honest, nobody...

We will remember them AS we go to press we learn that London has been placed in “Tier 2” on the Government’s Coronavirus table meaning that it is under a raft of new restrictions. These new restrictions include limiting the Remembrance Sunday ceremony at the Cenotaph to invited guests only—there...

Whilst the iron is hot IT SEEMS I was a tad too optimistic with my Editorial comment last month when I spoke about the return of the Bloomsbury Fair that would herald a start to the “new season” and lead on to the other autumn shows. The continuing presence of the Coronavirus, at least in terms...

An alternative offering. RECENTLY various “news” (and I use the term loosely) websites claimed that a senior member of the Honours Committee has stated that the word “Empire” is to be removed from the Order of the British Empire. According to the source the recent Black Lives Matter protests...

Back at it! IT IS with great gladness, even relief, that we can report that the Bloomsbury Coin Fair is back on! The first show of the new “numismatic season”, usually ushered in by Coinex, will take place at the usual venue, the Royal National Hotel in Bloomsbury, London on October 3. As luck...

Looking back at it THE biggest story in the medal world this month has to be the decision of the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to recommend to Her Majesty the Queen that 18-year-old Ordinary Seaman Teddy Sheean of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) should be posthumously awarded the...

A bid in the hand THIS MONTH we feature a letter from Michael Naxton, emeritus curator of the Lord Ashcroft medal collection but also well known to many in the coin world too from his time working at various major auction houses. His letter was originally sent to our sister magazine MEDAL NEWS...

Headline act THE weekly newspaper for the antiques trade, the Antiques Trade Gazette (ATG) of June 20 had what I consider to be a rather curious headline. Reporting the discovery of an organised medal forging “factory” in Derbyshire (see News & Views, page 6), the headline, on their front page,...

What’s next? SO it’s month three of “lockdown”? Or is it month four? I’m losing track I’m afraid. I know I need a haircut and know that I’d quite like somebody else to do the cooking and washing up but apart from that my life, and I suspect the lives of many of us, hasn’t changed dramatically....

Today's the day! Yes on 20/02/2020 (see what they did there) the new £20 featuring JMW Turner, the "Painter of Light" and his famous painting " The Fighting Temeraire ". The new polymer note (made of the same material as the Churchill £5 and the Austen £10) has a number of new security features...

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...

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...