Welcome to September, Spring, Autumn, Fall or the Wet/Dry/Monsoon season wherever you are!
I have 2 items to start the show bought yesterday September 2.
An Elizabeth sixpence in an ancient locket (Interesting and weird, the coin is nice though - wonder if its haunted).
An old Chilean peso from 1884, nice old crown coin.
There is more, but will wait for it to arrive, just lets get things starting, as I know its been quiet lately.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
It's a one-year type (see catalogue) since they substituted BRITISH GUIANA for the old name of this colony: DEMERARA & ESSEQUIBO. I'm not sure but I think that's when they merged the two colonies. The guilder was a Dutch currency unit. Though not high grade, the coin looks better in hand than in the photos.
A low grade Barbados 1788 “I SERVE” penny token. This too looks better in hands than in the photos. I suppose they cultivated the pineapple for export. This is probably a plantation token.
My third Salonina coin, but low grade. I put a very low bid on it and assumed I wouldn't win, but I did. It's interesting for showing the high copper content in a coin that qualifies as a silver antoninianus. I suppose it's borderline billon…
Been a little while. Not too much exciting here, but I dropped in on an old collector friend whilst up in the area for work. Got a few swaps:
Got the final four A-Z 10p coins I needed (A,E,L,Z), all the 2018 editions, and the 1992 EEC 50p which I've been missing. It looks to be in fantastic condition, dare say it's actually a BU release.
Just 3 more coins to go until a full set of post-decimal circulation UK coins. (4 if I include the Kew 50p; only have in a BU set, not circulation grade).
Attended the Missasauga coin show yesterday and picked up some very nice pieces. I would have been very happy just to walk away with the Sailana state coin, but as it turns out, I got pulled into this Quebec dealers table and spent a good couple hours rifling through his binders. Stixker prices were very reasonable and he was very generous with a 30% discount over that, so came away with some very high quality British Raj coins, which is good, because I’m very picky about those., along with a couple of German states as well as a nice Brazil Empire piece. Funny enough, I only went in expecting to pick up a couple of the latest toonie and loonie commems which of course I did as well
I’ve quite the haul this time! Went to a coin show not far from me earlier today with a coworker, and while the majority of the show was American stuff (I get the appeal, but American stuff just is not the focus of my collection), I did manage to find some non American things I didn’t own yet and liked.
Majority Banknotes, but I do have a couple coins I’ll show at the bottom! I’d assume that’s what most of y’all will be interested in anyways.
I got a couple of UK shillings in the mail today. A nice higher grade Edward VII (I'm thinking probably VF to VF+), and a lower grade George IV (probably around F, but with beautiful rainbow toning that doesn't really show up in the picture that well)
The 1890 H 5 cents is an upgrade; it will probably be released from its prison in the near future. The 2021 single date 10 cents (compare with the double date and double date special design and same but colorized) is possibly a circulation coin?? I'm not even sure at this moment. I haven't seen any in circulation so far. I think it was minted only for sets and possibly some were released by mistake?? At this time IDK for sure what happened. And as a bonus, the seller included his advertizing medal — no. 45 of 150. I'm quite happy too with the high value stamps he used:
Also of interest are these two books:
I know for a fact I'm not the only Numista member to have his own copy of the bronze coinage book…
Good I see they have arrived! The rest of my coins I bought at the start of September.
Another Historic Danish coin that cost me little. Its one of the first to be made with a steam press that gave perfectly round coins in Denmark.
This 2 skilling (About 1/48 or something of a Thaler/Daler) was one of the first coins of Frederick VI and came at a time when Copenhagen had been attacked by the British twice in 7 years and Denmark stupidly joined Napoleon's side. The king was actually ¾ English as his mother and grandmother were Hanoverian Princesses (Some question his father may have been Johann von Struensee, rather than Christian VII - google it, an interesting story and the Danes made a movie about it in Engelsk and Dansk).
The coin is one of the last to acknowledge their dominion over Norway, as in 1814 it went to Sweden. The country went bankrupt not long after and the next coin, a 3 skilling from 1812 is ½ the size of this one! Its likely the machine that made the coin was given by the French as they had mastered this perfectly round coin technology in the 1790s like the British.
The rest of my coins are British and again feature my favourite types - Maundy Oddments and high grade Bronze (Freeman would be impressed).
1822 Maundy tuppence, actually the first year of G4's Maundy coinage - none came out in 1821 and 1820 was still G3 - decent EF shape, and first perfectly round, the great recoinage of 1816/17 did not extend to Maundy and 1817 - 1820 coins are still only milled level technology.
An 1840 Maundy penny, very small and toned. I am calling it my Waitangi penny - as it was the year NZ's foundation document the Treaty of Waitangi (Te tiriti o Waitangi) was signed.
Maundy 4 pence from 1844, these were bigger than the Britannia groats and easily told apart. This one is AU, but likely cleaned in past (60s to 90s) as its scratched and looks like toning is starting to reclaim the margins(Compare it to a naturally toned coin like Neilithic's beautiful G4 shilling).
1859 Tuppence, at this rate I could make up a complete run of Maundy through oddments - this one is quite worn (VF) meaning it got a lot of use.
In amongst these pieces, a beautiful crown, likely VF or near so and its the earlier 1894 coin with the regnal year 57 (1893 - 94). Crowns usually come with edge dings and knocks, this is no exception.
Next is 5 very nice halfpennies, not showing all the obverses as they are boring. As far as I am concerned, these are all UNC and some are even BU. They have the usual carbon flecks you would expect - but a nice group of coins ranging from $7 (1958) to $25 (1941) each.
1941 - a real stunner and could be BU as its a real light red brown colour.
1945 - really nice, as this was the era the mint was burnishing blanks and encouraging people not to store shiny bronze coins.
1954 and 1957 rough sea, a nice pair - 1954 coins are always hard to find in high grade.
1958 and the obverse on these coins. A nice group, previously only a 1956 halfpenny and my 1967 were this nice.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
The 2 rappen definitely is double struck - nice. I only have a few of those coins and they are later like 1931. Most of my 1 and 2 rappen are the later 1940s art deco style ones.
I did buy this set when I visited Switzerland in 2014 and has some higher grade examples of that type.
Sorry a really old photo from like 2015
I also got this for free from a coin shop years ago, remove the gunk and hole and its quite a decent piece. Apparently ones this old were 10% silver making them billon.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
No 25c coins were released into circulation in 1997, only PL and SP. This is a specimen strike according to the seller, though I'm not sure I could differentiate this from the proof-like finish. I suppose they all came in some sort of packaging and/or sets, so someone —possibly a coin dealer— broke the set open to sell coins individually. Or else a collector was bothered by the fact that he had two holes in his date set for 1997 and 1998, so he found some sets and broke them open…
For sure if this was released into circulation 99% of people wouldn't see the difference with circulating coins as the specs are identical except for the quality of the finish.
Also, for 1998 and 1998W the catalogue provides lines for both “brilliant uncirculated” and “prooflike”. Is this not the same thing? I don't think the Mint ever use the term “prooflike” which is not official terminology anyway. I'll check my Charlton later…
An absolute stunner. One of my favorite designs too, I want to get the 5 Mark version at some point, as well. Even if I do get it tho, it’ll be hard to compare it to this one! The toning this coin has gained over the years is phenomenal. You can definitely see it far better in these images than in the ones I posted the other day
This was a good deal.. on the Dutch version of eBay sometimes people just sell coins when they have no idea what they are selling.
I bought this for the grand price of five euros! A provincial Viminacium Herennia Etruscilla sestertius. On the same platform i also bought a VF- Julia Mamaea sestertius and an XF Aurelian ORIENS AVG together with some common Roman bronzes for 45 bucks. Not bad, no photos because i already have them in the flips :)
I am thinking of soaking it in distilled water, it looks very crusty and dirty. Opinions?
I won several coins on eBay over the weekend including these two (seller's photos):
I think it's this one in the catalogue or something very similar: Macedonia — Antigonos II Gonatas — dichalkon. According to the seller: 3.33g 18.3mm; according to the catalogue: 4.5g 16mm.
Not sure about this one. It seems again to have the legend ANT at the bottom and some letters above what looks like a cow. 6.37g 18.5mm.
Unfortunately, I forgot to post my additions in August. Was very busy with adding all my sets (and some that I don't have) to the catalog. Which is unfortunate cause I've got carried away a bit, and bought tons of coins (mostly in sets) as a birthday gift for myself.
Anyways!
I finally got my 1962 Suriname proof set, what I am very happy about. This was definitely the most expensive one time numismatic purchase for me, but it was worth it. These coins had a mintage of only 650 pieces, and thus are by far the rarest coins in my collection! A positive thing about this purchase was that the coins are already graded, but I paid approximately the price of an ungraded set for them.
A lot of fascinating history on it, which I'll not bore you all with. But it was issued in a huge hurry to replace the gold coinage in the UK so it could be used to cover WWI.
The UK entered WWI on 4th August 1914, the Treasury was authorised by the Government to issue notes on 5th, and the first of these notes were ready for issue by the 7th!
Designed from near-nothing, authorised by Government, printed, and ready for circulation. 2 days!
Printed in such a hurry, the only watermarked paper available was actually destined for stamps.
Impressive stuff really.
And tough to find as their issue run was exceptionally short. The 2nd design was out by late October 1914. So this first design really only had ~3 month window of production at most.
Impressive! We always get to see remarkable new British additions in these threads, this month including Moneytane's additions on 9/11.
This RPI Inflation Calculator starts at 1915 (which is pretty close) and gives the value of £1 in January 1915 = £99 in July 2025! This is stunning given the low level of security on these notes. That's probably a major reason why this design lasted for only three months. I don't know how you could actually trust any such note handed to you in payment — and do we know of any fakes? Forgeries were always a big concern for Bank of England notes, and I would guess for these Treasury notes as well — the “Bradburys”.
Regarding forgeries - It is widely known forgeries existed because unscrupulous people took advantage of the confusion as these notes appeared on the scene pretty rapidly & unexpectedly (at least, to the general public's eye). So very easy to fool people with unfamiliarity.
And as you say, very basic design with minimal security.
Plus with the outbreak of war, there was a lot more mobility between locations so made it easier for strangers to pass forgeries on with less likelihood of being caught.
That being said, I can't seem to find anyone offering a known forgery for sale, or even images thereof, easily. 🤨
It seems either the forgeries are so good they still pass muster today, or were so few (relative to issue volume) that they've largely been filtered out during demonetisation.
Although they were rapidly replaced by the 2nd treasury series, they were valid until 1920 so still plenty of time for a forger.
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Perhaps one of the bigger ironies is that we know of modern semi-forgery scam where a “common” type is adapted to have the appearance of a “rarer” type.
Depending on your exact source, there are about 12 sub-variations.
Fortunately mine is about the most common one you can get & not in the best of conditions (still pretty good for 111 years old!), so not something I've had to worry about.
That Bradbury is beautiful and I know how rare they are, along with the bright Red 10 bob note (All us Brits and their subjects like me, will know what a bob is - everyone else - a shilling).
They were issued to replace these bad boys
I tried to choose the date closest to 1914 as possible - This is Perth, Australia mint and would have been used by NZer's
In 1914 we were still using the notes of around 6 or 7 trading banks and gold was king for amounts under £5. Getting banknotes before the 1934 Reserve Bank series (And even they are hard) is nigh on impossible here. We were slow to get off the mark with 10 bob notes too, with the first NZ bank - Bank of New Zealand issuing a basic looking 10 bob on pink paper in Sep 1916! The other banks followed between 1917 and 1920 and the notes were so badly designed and announced, many people passed them off as 10 pound notes and banks were forced to issue a uniform currency where denominations had the same colour and the word “Shillings” had to be on the note.
I am not sure if British notes circulated here, but I feel they were not legal tender, unlike coins NZ got banknotes as early as 1840 when our country started and by 1863 about 10 banks were issuing them as gold was being found everywhere,
The British shut down their own production of gold in 1915 and went fully into the banknotes, but colonial mints only eased off a bit and kept pumping out gold until 1931 (Australian) and 1932 (South Africa - which only started in 1923 anyway). After WW1 and the silver price shocks of 1919/20, things calmed down a bit in the 1920s and another issue of sovs was issued in 1925, but most went to Arabia and many were reminted in 1948 again for the Arabs.
The Brits kept the notes though and they evolved a few times, by 1917 they looked like this
In 1924 Ireland was changed to Northern Ireland
Then in 1928, they got replaced by this design, now its England/Wales only as Scotland and Northern Ireland used their own notes
However this is a 1949 - 1955 Beale, a 1928 note would have looked identical and it lasted until 1960
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
Interesting explanations, A Collector and Moneytane. And, now that you mention it, Moneytane, it's true that the issue of the Crown's legal tender in the colonies seems to apply only to coins, not banknotes — nor currency notes (which came later anyway). The main way in the colonies to make payments to a provider (merchant, service provider, etc.) with their main office in London or elsewhere in Britain was the bill of exchange, basically (and I'm oversimplifying here) having a function similar to a promissory note or post-dated cheque but with more security. Inside larger colonies, all kinds of banks would issue their own notes. You always had to be on your guard aginst notes of spurious bank or some other types of forgery.
Some further additions from the same seller as the two Greek coins above:
Here's all three of the Treasury issue £1 notes. As correctly stated, the 3rd one was later reissued as “Northern Ireland” - not pictured as I don't have one yet!
You'll notice just how small the first issue is! Was actually a big complaint by the cashiers.
And here's all three variants of the later BoE issues (roughly pre-WWII, WWII “Emergency issue”, & post war).
As Moneytane stated the pre & post war are basically the same, except post has security thread. (Technically there's a very small run [3 months] of post war where they used pre-war unthreaded but that's splitting hairs).
However, my favourite change is between the Treasury 3rd (and final) issue & the first of the BoE £1 notes.
You'll notice the top (Treasury) shows the Houses of Parliament. The building on the BoE is the BoE headquarters. If I recall correctly, the change in the issuer was in 1924 and the BoE was keen to show it was once again “in charge” of notes.
So they deliberately put their building on the banknote as a kind of gesture. Depending on your source, some say it was to give an illusion of continuity. Others say it was a more “Screw you” gesture as they weren't pleased about the Treasury issuing notes in the first place (though naturally didn't dispute it at the time because y'know WWI). Must say I prefer the second option! 🤣
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Sadly I can't show a similar display for the 10/- notes as I barely have any. I lost my bid on a 1st Treasury. My 3rd Treasury is exceptionally poor, and I don't have any of the BoE trio!
Only have a 2nd Treasury in a reasonable state 😅
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But yes, it's a fascinating run for British notes. I have no idea about whether they made it out of the UK, except for some Arabic overprinted ones. Would have to look them up to give more details.
Possibly not if they still had gold on hand. 🤷🏼♂️
P.s. Excuse picture quality. Taken under light bulb light rather than natural.
This one I'm not sure. It could be Theodosius II or Valentinian III, so Late Roman or a “Barbaric” imitation. It's very small, at 1g for 9mm.
Good group, your Probus coin is likely almost pure copper. I recently read the Wikipedia article about Roman coins - basic I know, but even that said that silver content of Antoninianni went from like 45% in 238 (Gordians and Severus Alexander) down to 5% by the time of Aurelian (270 - 75) who issued the 21/1 coins which were 1 part silver to 21 parts copper, Probus was after him, so you have a coin that is like 4.5% silver at most (I just noticed XXI at bottom meaning it was that Aurelianine standard). Even your Gallienus coin is likely 25 or 30% silver at most and they were being washed in it by then, rather than just diluted alloys.
The last coin has a faint cross on its Reverse, suggesting you likely may have a Visigothic coin of the 5th or 6th century or like you said a Barbarian imitation of at least 400AD. Then again those post 380AD Roman coins were so crude, its hard to tell. This was the time that Asian coins overtook European ones with the high quality Sassanian coins and Chinese cash.
Any British 50% silver is good at near melt. Your two are above average, most 30s and 40s silver is VG - Fine and your pieces are gVF near EF (6d) and VF(Florin). I collect them as bulk coins in my stack and aim to have EF - UNC examples in the collection, although some dates are average still.
Sorry to brag, but they look best like this
AU - bit or wear on George's hair, cheek and eyebrow - but good fields and obverse.
Creamy UNC coin, but a “Fair” photo!
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
… your Probus coin is likely almost pure copper. … Even your Gallienus coin is likely 25 or 30% silver at most and they were being washed in it by then, rather than just diluted alloys.
Yes — very low silver content. The Probus one had a silver surface, i.e. a “silver wash” as they call it. You can see that it is worn out on the highest points om the coin. I don't know whether they used a technique similar to Henry VIII's moneyers for his “copper nose” issues.
The last coin has a faint cross on its Reverse, suggesting you likely may have a Visigothic coin of the 5th or 6th century or like you said a Barbarian imitation of at least 400AD. …
Interestingly, almost all Visigothic coins in our catalogue are gold. But yes, it could be very, very late. I posted two Theodosius II coins with the cross on the reverse in the recent past (here and here). They are small (AE4) but quite a bit larger than this new one (which is, however, about twice as thick as they are).
Any British 50% silver is good at near melt. Your two are above average, most 30s and 40s silver is VG - Fine and your pieces are gVF near EF (6d) and VF(Florin). I collect them as bulk coins in my stack and aim to have EF - UNC examples in the collection, although some dates are average still.
I didn't post this other acquisition, given its somewhat lower grade:
but this, too, I got barely above melt value (like 50¢ above). Since I had several other coins in the same shipment, the shipping was almost free anyway. By the way, do we know why they moved from the “ONE FLORIN” denomination, as here, to “TWO SHILLINGS” under George VI?
The Florin thing I do not have an honest clue. The only possible suggestion is the East African unit they had went from a Rupee to a Florin in 1920 and then shilling in 1927, this coin was very base - 20% silver and maybe that freaked out the people in the UK, as the silver coins going from 92.5% to 50% in 1920 to combat silver prices, which promptly slumped in 1921, yet silver stayed at 50%.
Possibly also as this East African “Florin” was in fact just a Rupee variant worth 16 pence or 1/4 (One shilling and fourpence). Either that or some other country started issuing Florins worth more or less than the British unit, also as it was merely a courtesy name for a coin worth 10% of a pound.
Our New Zealand coins and Australian coins, kept the words “Florin” or “one Florin” until 1965 and Ireland coins had “Floirin” until 1968. Yet South African coins always said “Two shillings” or “2s”. Maybe as they spoke Afrikaans as well and in that language it would be Twee Shillings.
The Later coin of Theodosius etc could also be barabaric as the ruler has a beard and long thatchy hair and no Roman ruler even at the end of their Empire would lok that scruffy. It almost looks like a Sassanian style portrait.
I have some more coins and notes coming soon as well, some exciting ones too from Samoa and Cook Islands.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
Thank you both for your replies. One would think that the RM Annual Reports should provide the official reason, but so far as I can tell, it's not the case. Interestingly, the new George VI redesigned coinage is introduced not in the 1937 Report, but in the 1935–1936 one, which came out in November 1937 after a rather tumultuous successorial period. The Report spends a lot more time on the new nickel-brass 3d. The following Report (1937) discusses the difficulty of introducing the coin and the “crop of rumours” (i.e. baseless rumours) surrounding its introduction. Quite an interesting read.
Yes a lot of those reports I was searching through for information about penny mintings and most of them especially after 1931, seemed to be printed a year or 5 after the date.
The most extreme was 1939 - 1944, which was 6 reports in one published in late 1947, then 1945 in 1948, 46 in 49, 47 in 50 and even 53 was in 1955. Only in 1958 did they get to the next year. War Time rationing of paper and austerity rationing after that. The Rationing only finished in the UK in November 1954 as in nearly 10 years after the war ended.
Even when QE2 had her coronation in June 1953 - they allowed a special Lolly ration for kids - thats crazy, who was attacking the UK in 1953, besides Bebop music and Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield's latent sexuality?
Even New Zealand, we abandoned most rationing in 1946 and only sugar, fuel and tyres were rationed up to 1950. In fact in late 1946 and early 1947 many stores promoted sending food parcels to the UK, to help starving people choking under draconian rationing rules.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
One interesting thing about the RM Annual Reports is the place of colonial and dominion coin issues in them, as well as the stats for the colonial branches of the RM. Even after those Mints gained full autonomy from the RM, they were still included as if they were just a branch.
A few additions in the paper-money category, all Canadian except for the first:
This is from the same period as some of the notes (Bradburys, etc.) already posted and discussed above, though nothing as spectacular. Still, a very nice piece with a cool bank name and an embossed penny tax stamp. It also has security features, even on the back — that's better than the Bradburys…
Another cool bank's name: The Northern Crown Bank. Note that bearer was crossed out and order written above it for increased security. The London and Prov Bank cheque, above, was already marked “or Order” (not “or bearer”) which is more secure.
The Bank started under the name Northern Bank in 1905, then absorbed the Crown Bank in 1908 and changed its name accordingly to Northern Crown Bank. It was absorbed by the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) in 1918. So the Royal Crown Bank operated for only a decade under this name (source).
A promissory note that is almost 100 years old.
A 1942 Newfoundland promissory note. I'm not even sure whether these are actually called “promissory notes”.
With the month coming to an end, well, I don’t have much to show. I still think my pickup earlier in the month was my best grab this time around! Truly a beaut
BUT it’s mail day, and I did have one thing coming in
Photos don’t do it justice, but this one still has an amazing cartwheel lustre to it
It’s odd though, I could’ve sworn I’ve had this coin already. But I was putting something’s into capsules the other day and I guess I didn’t. Oh well, I suppose. Now I do
I have slowed down a bit too, or should I say the Post office, a big lot I ordered on Monday Sep 15 has still not arrived due to “economy” parcel rates which are like 10% cheaper than overnight stuff.
I also won a very nice coin in an auction that closed Friday, and they claim they are busy, it won't arrive until late next week. It seems charging 17% buyers premium, 2% card fee and GST on all the fees, along $10 insurance on a $400 coin, only qualifies you for “budget service”.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
It seems pretty hit and miss. Most of my stuff I just get it sent through in a standard envelope, because I'm a cheap bastard. Some if it comes within a couple of days, some of them take over 2 weeks to arrive. I have received some nice stuff in the last couple of days, so I can put some pictures up later in the day
The great thing about collecting silver coins of a specific size (23-26mm) is there is such a wide variety of coins to collect. I got these three in the mail yesterday, and I'm quite happy with them. South Africa 1950 shilling
Straits Settlements 1895 20c
And it's slightly outside the diameter of coin that I collect, but I got it for a good price, Netherlands Antilles 1952 Gulden
I agree some iconic coins there. So I see you are into shilling sized coins, as I know the 1952 Antillean guilders are about 26 - 27mm in size, the same size as our $2 piece or a British 50p.
2 small coins came from Wellington, the other order still has not arrived (8 days now and will be 10 days)
1942 UK Halfpenny, same stable and dealer as my earlier purchases, I don't think this one is nice and may be onlu high AU, look at the sea below ship and hair behind the ears, still nice though.
Fijian 5 bob notes, I bought 4 of these type with different dates, turned out I already had 2 of them as I confused them with the lighter green one pound notes (It's been a terrible week for me). If it helps, none of them cost more than $15.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
Went to my local coin collecting/antiques/bric a brac super store today and bought some nice pieces. 3 decent coins and the start of my new Banknote country - this will please a few members, Canada.
Will do photos tomorrow but can say I bought. $1 and $5 of 1937 KGVI series, both AU (Gordon and Towers)
$2, $10, $20 of 1954 no devils face series (Coyne, Beatty and Rasminsky I think). The $20 is the better prefix M/E
$50 of the 1975 series (Lawson) all are VF to AU
Also got a English 10/- of Type D, but an O'Brien which was a 1 year only type (1961 - 1962) and its in good condition (EF - AU not Good!)
Bought a 1,000 Japanese silver Olympic coin (Apparently this is a legally tender circulating coin).
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
Not had much luck myself this month with my bids. However, I did get some nice banknote ephemera:
A full set of the Series E (1990s) portraits. I'm not yet sure when issued or for what purpose. Possibly a 2018 display at the Bank of England Museum from the seller. All nicely numbered as 75/500 so a matching set. So far as I can tell, they've been framed at a later date but that's preferable for me, got plenty of bare walls.
With their respective notes:
What's interesting is the slight variations from design to production, particularly obvious is the clouds behind Stephenson on the £5.
Canada Post employees went on strike again, this time over the issue of home delivery. The government had had enough of bailing out the corporation every year and decided to put an end to door-to-door delivery. If I remember correctly, this only represents about a fifth of all deliveries, but takes up to about 80% of all delivery expenses. Most if not all specialists agree the business model is obsolete. Canada Post currently loses $10 million per day.
This means that this interesting item I hoped to receive either this week or next from the UK is stuck somewhere in limbo, hopefully in the Toronto area already:
Bill of exchange from Saint Vincent, BWI, 1868, Bank of England Bill of Exchange / Colonial Bank (upper left corner). It's a little annoying that the seller doesn't usually provide a photo of the back, because I'm not much interested in “remainders” (i.e. the uncashed portions of the usual set of three copies) but by flipping the image in PowerPoint one can see the stamps that came along with the endorsement:
This is a “FIRST of Exchange (second & third not paid)”. I'm still not sure exactly how this worked. Passed a certain date I think the first of exch. became obsolete and you had to use the second of exch., likewise even later the third of exch. which was your last chance. The bill of exchange was the most practical way to send money from the colonies to the motherland, i.e. the UK, likewise for other colonial powers in Europe and elsewhere. It's almost like a post-dated cheque, but with more security… and government oversight.
EDIT — By the way I'm paying attention just now to the stamp with an almost perfectly centered Colonial Bank cancellation:
The law on bills of exchange provided for the requirement of stamp cancellation. Most of the time it's done by writing the date on the stamp with a pen.
Only very tangibly related... 200 years ago today (27th Sept), the Stockton & Darlington Railway hauled the first public passenger train starting a global transformation for mass transit of goods & people.
This iconic moment featured on the reverse of the Series E £5 note. High detail images curtsey of the Bank of England.
And today, here's the replica engine built for the 150th anniversary recreating the exact scene over the same original* bridge (Skerne Bridge, built especially for the railway line & in continuous use making it the oldest operational railway bridge in the world).
This time my own pic 😁
Running late as you'd expect (about 15 mins). After all, it is British rail 🤣
*The bridge has been repaired over the years of course. The embankments were a later addition so used anachronistically on the note. The note used a painting made for the 50th anniversary where the artist was unaware of the change.
One of the more notable changes is the smaller arches below. They still exist, but the ground beneath them has been raised to form walkways (the main arch still over the river). So small arches aren't as tall now (though the stonework still exists below ground)
Very interesting. I could imagine after 200 years a bridge over a river would sink into the ground a bit through age as well.1825 is a long time ago, when they still used long s's in some things and a 4 year old could be forced to work in a mine for 2 shillings a week, my country was still full of tribesmen shooting each other with muskets and missionaries bringing in homophobia and intolerance to our native people.
But it was a period of rapid modernsation, with telegraphs, stamps, and photography, all on the horizon.
We would not get a train until 1863 and the first tram just a year earlier.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
End of the month magic. I got an 1843 Papal States 5 Baiocchi, and a 1796 Schleswig 2 ½ schilling. Schleswig coin is pretty worn, but I got it for a great price. Papal states coin is pretty good, but too small for me to.take a decent photo with my phone
One interesting thing about the RM Annual Reports is the place of colonial and dominion coin issues in them, as well as the stats for the colonial branches of the RM. Even after those Mints gained full autonomy from the RM, they were still included as if they were just a branch.
A few additions in the paper-money category, all Canadian except for the first:
This is from the same period as some of the notes (Bradburys, etc.) already posted and discussed above, though nothing as spectacular. Still, a very nice piece with a cool bank name and an embossed penny tax stamp. It also has security features, even on the back — that's better than the Bradburys…
Another cool bank's name: The Northern Crown Bank. Note that bearer was crossed out and order written above it for increased security. The London and Prov Bank cheque, above, was already marked “or Order” (not “or bearer”) which is more secure.
The Bank started under the name Northern Bank in 1905, then absorbed the Crown Bank in 1908 and changed its name accordingly to Northern Crown Bank. It was absorbed by the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) in 1918. So the Royal Crown Bank operated for only a decade under this name (source).
A promissory note that is almost 100 years old.
A 1942 Newfoundland promissory note. I'm not even sure whether these are actually called “promissory notes”.
Received this proof coin today; it’s unique in the sense that the official unveiling ceremony took place a couple months ago in Fremont California where the SRHM organisation is based. This is the first time such an event was held outside India. So far the coin is only available to US and Canadian residents as the coin is being sold by the organization. It should be available from the Bombay mint soon I suppose
Really nice group there! Love the Charles X era 5 Francs, they are harder to find than Louis Philippe ones!
Noticed a lot of tone and original conditions there - always good to find coins from that era, that are not cleaned.
That 1830 coin is like a coin that came out the same time as the “Les Miserables” riots - amazing!
Thought you would start the October thread, but realised its still September in the USA (2PM Oct 1 here)
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
