News & Blog

All in the family THIS MONTH sees an announcement by C&T Auctioneers and Valuers Ltd that they will no longer accept for sale any post-1991 medals unless consigned by the recipients or recipient’s next of kin (see “News & Views”). Whilst this being made an official policy of an auctioneer is...

Banknote News carried the design of the new £50 some months ago but now the notes themselves have been revealed, as has the date of their release, which will be June 23, exactly 109 years after Alan Turing, who features on the new polymer £50, was born! For more information on the new note take...

A taxing problem BEFORE I start this month’s editorial “comment” I need to stress that when it comes to any type of financial advice we at Token Publishing Ltd are NOT qualified or regulated nor are we tax lawyers, and anything we say in regard to finances, investments, tax laws, etc. is purely...

  Unfortunately it seems that the ongoing uncertainty surrounding Coronavirus measures and the obvious fear that despite the “roadmap to recovery” that should see us restriction free in June the UK may yet see another lockdown, the Orders and Medals Research Society (OMRS) have decided that the...

It is with great regret that the organisers of the Maastricht (Valkenburg) Paper money fair (originally due to be held on April 17-18) have decided to cancel the spring event due to the ongoing coronavirus situation. Whilst we are all hoping things will get "back to normal" soon April might be a...

Trying to make sense of it I MUST confess I rarely buy coins “online”. Yes, I’ll visit a dealer’s website, or even bid via the internet at an auction that I cannot attend (which, of course, is all of them these days) but those things I view as simply another way of buying from people I would...

Why? Just Why? HERE’S a question: why do you collect medals? Or indeed why do you collect anything? Not why do you collect the medals of your chosen “theme”—we all have different answers to that. Our readership comprises those who collect to their old regiment or police force, those who...

SPEAKING UP EVERY now and then a medal related story pops up here in Exeter, on this occasion though it doesn’t involve our local regiment (formerly the Devons, then the Devon & Dorsets now the 1st Battalion, the Rifles) but rather it focuses on the “appropriateness” of a statue here in the...

Locking down, looking up HERE we are again, the UK back in lockdown and the vast majority of us stuck at home. I make no comments about lockdowns, vaccines, PCR tests or anything else here; there are plenty of others with their own opinions and to add my voice to the debate would be pointless....

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...

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...