Welcome to coin collecting!
You have a fascinating and rewarding time ahead of you.
But, where to start?
Here, we’ll give you 5 coins that will really get your collection off to a good start. And give it some weight.
First of all the usual warnings.
You do need to shop with some care - but without paranoia.
Use reputable dealers. Check their reputation too.
If you use reselling sites then only use sellers with very high feedback scores.
Make sure you do your research on what you’re buying.
Follow your usual safe shopping protocols when shopping for coins.
It is possible to fake valuable coins. Provenance and documented authentication are your best insurances against fakes.
Now, let’s get into our list and get your collection up and running.
1 - Queen Victoria Double Florin
This fascinating coin tells us a lot about money and its function.
A florin is two shillings. A double florin is four shillings.
Both coins were introduced with the intention of replacing the half crown (2.5 shillings) and crown (5 shillings, or ¼ of a pound) and eventually decimilising the Imperial monetary system.
And people hated it.
It was part of an issue for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. But the redesign, designed to more accurately reflect the looks and age of the monarch, wasn’t popular.
And this coin was a disaster. The denomination wasn’t engraved anywhere on the coin. And the same was true of the crown, worth nearly the same, and about the same size. It was so easy to mix them up in less-than-ideal lighting that the coin was nicknamed the “Barmaid’s Ruin”.
Oh dear. A bad functional design in some ways.
But good news for collectors, because these coins were only made for three years from 1887 to 1890. That’s around 2.5 million coins. The Royal Mint bought back coins on request.
You should be able to find an example for under £100 today.
2 - Silver Sceatta
It’s very thrilling to own something that feels ancient, but you can do it for under a few hundred pounds with an Anglo Saxon sceat.
These were silver coins.
They’re small and very low-tech, but extremely beautiful, often with intricate designs. The name means “treasure” or “money”.
They were used across northern Europe for several centuries, so they’re within reach of ordinary buyers. Though, the huge variety of style and quality makes them a rewarding speciality in their own right, and with some wonderful individual examples.
Sceatta were eventually cast aside in favour of the penny, which is still with us now.
3 - A Bun Head Penny
Pennies are, well, 10 a penny.
With some exceptions.
They include, in the accessible to beginners category, some Bun Head pennies.
One of the joys of coins is that they are long lived. QUeen Victoria’s exceptionally long reign is realtievly unusual in demanding a number of different portraits of the monarch for official purposes.
One such portrait is the 1860 - 1894 “bun head” portrait, which you’ll be unsuprised to learn is a very fine profile of Queen Victoria with her hair in a bun.
This is a commonly collected series of pennies, which is a great starting point for a beginner. They were issued in varying numbers each year, and some are quite rare. For example, in 1868 and 1871 just over 1.2 million pennies were struck.
An 1869 bun head penny, from a year when more than 2.5 million coins were issued, has recently been seen at auction with a low-end estimate of £1,500.
This is an accessible series, that might bring you into the wider world of Victorian pennies, and Victorian coinage more generally.
4 - An Eisenhower Dollar
Eisenhower Dollars are often run of the mill.
But some of these coins - issued in honour of rather than during the government of the WWII general turned politician - were issued in small numbers and are rare and desirable.
Most can be found for prices that are beginner friendly, very rarely more than a few hundred dollars.
Most are not silver dollars and their value derives largely from limited runs. They were minted between 1971 and 1978.
I think the design is simple and beautiful.
The costliest is a Type 2 from 1972 which could head towards $1,000 if it’s in mint condition.
The dollars struck in the Bicentennial year of 1976 have an extra cachet, and a Type 1 from that year could fetch around $100 in the right condition.
5 - 10 Yuan silver panda coin of 2007
Chinese coins can be extremely valuable.
The market saw a boom mirroring the market for Chinese stamps as the Chinese economy opened up.
Modern Chinese history is very complicated. And Chinese numismatics reflects this.
This rarity is straightforward though: in 2007 the People’s Republic of China issued a limited edition 10 Yuan in solid silver as a bullion coin.
It’s a very beautiful design that celebrated the 25th anniversary of China’s panda coins.
Only around 600,000 of these coins were issued. New ones come out each year, and it’s a series that rewards collectors with interest and perhaps good return on investment.
Rare coins for you today
Rarity is the first condition of value in coin collecting.
That doesn’t mean that all rare coins are valuable though. And you can start picking up coins that exist in - for numismatics - very small numbers for less than you might spend on a couple of pints.
The world of coins is so huge - everyone has used money every day for millennia now - that the most rewarding collection is a focussed one.
There are all sorts of special interests you could follow, but the best guide is your own interests.
