Coin News

As you can't have failed to notice, one of the most controversial coins of the decimal era goes into circulation on January 31. The design of the so-called "Brexit 50p", minted to mark the UK leaving the European Union, was unveiled last year but, of course, the date has had to be changed...

Defining boundaries AS IS our habit we are once again dedicating the February front cover of COIN NEWS to the Chinese Lunar New Year coins that already abound. This year, as Dr Kerry Rodgers so eloquently points out in his article (pages 39–41) is the Year of the Rat (or more precisely the year...

Treasured possessions THE recent court case surrounding the metal detectorists who discovered a Viking hoard of coins and jewellery in Herefordshire in 2015, has attracted a great deal of attention and debate in recent weeks. We discussed details of the hoard back in July and John Andrew’s...

What a year DECEMBER is always a good time to take stock of the year, whether that’s personally, professionally or numismatically. What, I wonder, have been your highlights of 2019? Have you added much to your collection? Have you perhaps disposed of some of it and rationalised a little? Have...

The Famous Who? THE RECENT announcement that a coin celebrating the life and work of our childhood favourite, Enid Blyton, was vetoed for fear of a social media backlash seems to have attracted a reasonable amount of media attention, but why? The decision, which was actually taken in 2016 and...

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 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...