Coin News

Don't forget that no sooner are we back after Christmas than the York show will be upon us! The bi-annual event is always extremely popular and this year the first one will be on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 January 2012 - once again in the Knavesmire stand of the York Racecourse. Keep the date free...

Token Publishing is pleased to announce that shortly all our YEARBOOKS will be available as PDF downloads for viewing on PC, Laptop, Smartphone or Tablet. We're trialling the idea with the BANKNOTE YEARBOOK available in four sections (England, Scotland, Ireland - North and South and the...

A marked difference? EVER since the first decimal coins appeared, our hobby has lacked a certain something. Modern minting methods and quality control at the huge site in Llantrisant meant that the oddities and rarities that so many of us eagerly sought in our pre-decimal change became few and far...

A metal detecting event in Essex discovered some amazing finds - dozens of Victorian and Edwardian Coins thought to be worth over £70,000 in total. Unfortunately only two of them were actually "declared" on the day and now the organisers of the event are appealing to those who took part to hand in...

Worth noting BACK in 2009 the Bank of England announced that the next design of the £50 note would feature the Engineers and business partners Matthew Boulton and James Watt. Following the introduction of the somewhat controversial “Adam Smith” £20 it was assumed that the new £50 would follow soon...

The way forward? EVERY year the numismatic “season” in the UK starts at the end of September/beginning of October with a series of auctions in the big London Houses (and outside the Capital) and the British Numismatic Trade Society’s (BNTA) “Coinex” show held in central London. For the last few...

A note of caution LAST month’s comment regarding the recent burglary at the house of a member of the Token Team has encouraged a number of you to write into us with your own experiences of this situation. Many of these letters and emails were rather enlightening and I thought I would make a note...

Don't forget the BNTA's COINEX - the showcase event at the Millennium Hotel, Grosvenor Square Mayfair on Friday and Saturday! Friday is for the serious collector with a £50 entry fee in the morning but Saturday is free for all so why not come along and pick up a copy of the brand new COIN...

A few years back the Krause catalogues came with some very useful CDs containing Pdfs of the whole book - then suddenly they disappeared - the later versions of the acclaimed volumes no longer had a CD included - much to the chagrin of collectors and dealers who had found the easily searchable -...

Staying safe I MAKE no apologies this month for writing broadly similar “Comments” in both COIN NEWS and MEDAL NEWS and I hope those of you who buy both magazines (and there are a number of you out there) will forgive me and, as you read on, I hope you will agree that the subject is worthy of...

Scoin Shop continue their retail expansion with the opening of their third premises in Westfield, Stratford City, London on September 13. The company have seen an unprecedented demand for gold commemorative coins over recent months with the latest UK £5 for William & Catherine proving extremely...

It's almost autumn and with it the new numismatic/medal season will get underway. We will, as ever be attending a large number of shows in the forthcoming months including: Birmingham Motorcycle Museum on September 11 The OMRS at the BMA London on September 25 Coinex on September 30/October...

Whatever next? THE recent sale at Bonhams of Alderney’s one off gold “John Lennon” coin for £60,000 (see news and views page 10) had echoes of a similar sale at Stacks-Bowers of an Australian $30,000 gold 10 kilo coin (see COIN NEWS, May 2011) and indeed other sales before that, where coins with...

The date of the next Bushey Coin Auction is now Thursday September 15 not Saturday August 27 - the venue has also been changed to Bushey Golf and Country Club not Watford Football Club! For further details see their website

According to various people we saw at the York Fair Paul Dawson (of Spink York) is, thankfully, on the mend following the dreadful car crash back in June. He's still in hospital in Nottingham and will have to undergo further medical procedures but he is getting better! We wish him all the very...

With uncertainty still surrounding the global financial markets Gold (and silver) continue their upward trend with the yellow metal reaching over $1600 on Tuesday July 19. For the full story see the BBC website

An incredible 30,000 coins, all minted in the auspicious numismatic year of 1933 (think 33 penny, 33 double eagle...) are being auctioned off on eBay by their owner Jim Jacobs who has been collecting for most of his life. Jim, who was born in 1933 reckons that his collection represents some...

Whilst we try to bring a good selection of products to all the fairs we attend we simply can't carry everything; so if there is something specific you'd like bringing to a show then please give us a call on 01404 44166 and we'll make sure we pack it for you!

  BONHAMS Memorabilia sale on June 29 drew gasps of amazement and a round of applause when the unique John Lennon gold coin struck for Alderney as part of the Great Britons series sold for a staggering £60,000 (pre-sale estimate £2,000). Issued in 2010, the coin originally issued in both...

It is with great sadness that we learn of the death, after a short illness, of coin dealer Peter Ireland of Blackpool. Peter was a founder member of the BNTA and has been a stalwart of the numismatic world for many many years. Our condolences and thoughts go out to his family.

Fair chance THE London Coin Fair at the beginning of June, held as ever in the Holiday Inn, Bloomsbury, was a great success—a large number of people eagerly queued in the foyer before the 9.30am opening and throughout the day a steady stream of visitors ensured that the event felt busy right...

Many of you will know Paul, formerly of B J Dawson Coins and now of Spink (he runs the York Shop in the Shambles in York). On Thursday evening he and his girlfriend Heather Hardcastle were involved in an accident with a lorry on the M1 in Nottinghamshire. Both were taken to the Queen's Medical...

Once again the COIN YEARBOOK has completely sold out! 12,000 yearbooks delivered to us in October have all gone and whilst our warehouse isn't empty (we sell an awful lot of other numismatic and medal related titles) there is definitely more space than there was! The next edition - 2012 - will...

Don't forget the London Coin Fair this Saturday....! As always this show is at the Holiday Inn, Bloomsbury, starting at 9.30am we will, of course, be there with our full range of books and magazines including the BRAND NEW Roman Coins and their Values IV and all the Krause titles...See you...

Stretching the limits? AT COIN NEWS we pride ourselves on being reasonably broad in our Editorial stance—yes, we have to cover the coins that fetch over £3 million at auction, to ignore them would be silly, but we also try to ensure that we include a range of stories, features and articles on...

It's been a while coming but it's here at last - the latest Volume in David Sears' wonderful ROMAN COINS AND THEIR VALUES series This latest volume contains a comprehensive listing of the Roman coinage of the period AD 284-337 together with background information on the history of each reign....

It is with great sadness that we learn of the death, on Maundy Thursday, of Leicestershire dealer Martin Hewitt, stalwart of the "fair" scene and known to many after years in the trade. Martin was taken ill at the Harrogate show and admitted to hospital there, although he was later transferred...

Who are we…? THIS month’s cover features the new Royal Wedding Crown, and within the pages of the magazine you will find an interview with the designer of that Crown, Mark Richards. For those of you who collect new issues such an interview will be of great interest—to those of you who aren’t...

Congratulations go to Morton and Eden whose recent sale saw an Islamic coin fetch a staggering new record - the Umayyad dinar, dated 105h (723AD) was struck from gold mined at a location owned by the Caliph himself - known on the coins as the “Mine of the Commander of the Faithful”. An...

Designed To Matter THE Royal Mint has announced that there will indeed be a “Royal Wedding” £5 crown to celebrate the marriage of Prince William and Kate (sorry Catherine) Middleton on April 29. It was perhaps inevitable that such a crown would be minted, after all the Prince’s parents had their...

The largest hoard of coins ever found in Britain is to stay in the County where it was discovered Thanks mainly to a National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) grant of £294,000 the Museum of Somerset has raised a total of £320,250 to keep the Frome Hoard, found last year by metal detectorist Dave...

As predicted (and hoped for) by COIN NEWS the Royal Mint have announced that there is to be an official Royal Wedding Crown for the marriage of Kate Middleton and Prince William on April 29. The £5 Crown, which features the profiles of the couple facing each other, the wedding date and the names...

Fair comment On Sunday, February 6, the Token Team (well, Phil anyway) took a rather pleasant dawn drive across the New Forest to attend Rick Coleman’s brand new South Coast Coin and Medal show at Wide Lane Sports Centre, Eastleigh. We always like to support new ventures and, as we have known Rick...

For months now we've been saying that the "Cash for Gold" companies aren't giving their customers a fair deal - it seems that the Office of fair Trading (OFT) agrees with us. See the BBC's article . As always we would urge anyone who has gold coins to go to a bona fide coin dealer to sell and...

There's a BRAND NEW show on in Southampton this weekend (Sunday 6 Feb to be precise) - it's the SOUTH COAST COIN AND MEDAL SHOW and is taking place at the Pavilion, Southampton University Wide Lane Sports Ground, Wide Lane in Eastleigh, Hants (SO50 5PE for all you with Sat Navs!) It's a brand...

Rise or fall? AS we enter 2011 so the stock market volatility that has marred the past two years is abating somewhat and the “FTSE” is almost back at pre-credit crunch levels. However, this return to “stability” has not been reflected by the commodities market which is still seeing record prices...