Coin News

Jolly good show THIS year saw the 40th Anniversary of the British Numismatic Trade Association’s (BNTA) flagship coin show, Coinex. In recent years the event has been held at the Millennium Hotel, Grosvenor Square, in the heart of Mayfair but this year that hotel is being refurbished and so a...

Cashless Society? So what? As we go to press in early September so yet another “story” breaks about how cash is being over taken by credit and debit cards. As is the way of things these days so the story (picked up by a number of media outlets) happily tells us that cash is on its way out, how...

Our BRAND NEW guide to decimal circulating coins (and a few others!) is available NOW. On sale in Tesco and W H Smith Travel from September 6 and in W H Smith High Street from Sptember 12 this brand new book is the essential guide to the coins in your purse or pocket. Is that Peter Rabbit 50p...

Of bunnies and bears A RATHER interesting phenomenon was witnessed on the second day of the recent York Coin Fair in July—lots of people in on day two! Those of you who have ever attended the second day of a two day fair will know that it isn’t the hotbed of activity you might find at 9.30am on...

Always learning THE discovery of a hitherto unknown variety of 1806 halfpence (see “Discoveries” this month on page 30) begs a rather important question: Are there any more out there like this and if so how many? The ha’penny, discovered in Scotland, has the reverse with a 120° die axis...

A coin for Brexit? AS we go to press we learn of a call from some MPs for the Royal Mint to strike a “Brexit” coin to commemorate our leaving the European Union next year (this assuming we do, let’s not get into that right now…). Following what is being called by some as a “demand” for the...

Modern thinking THE striking of a commemorative £5 crown to celebrate the marriage of one Henry Windsor and Ms Rachel Markle on May 19 is notable for a couple of reasons. Firstly the subject is relatively far down the Royal “pecking order” (as it were) with previous Royals to grace coinage being...

When is a coin not a coin? OK, let’s put this to bed once and for all—COIN NEWS will not be covering Bitcoin in any depth . . . these days it is one of the questions that seems to be on everybody’s lips when I mention coins—they immediately ask whether I know anything about cryptocurrency. I’ve...

Thinking ahead SINCE last month’s Editorial “Comment” I have received a number of (not for publication) letters and emails explaining the reason why you, the readers, collect coins and I was quite surprised at how many of you admit to collecting as some kind of investment. You see coins both as a...

Just because AT A RECENT local social gathering I was asked, as one often is, what my interests were —when I replied “coin collecting” I expected one of three usual responses: either the glazed-over eyes accompanied by the fixed smile, a “that’s interesting” and a quick subject change; the “oh, I...