I want to take you back 150 years ago today and on a hop across the pond to what is now Canada. But Canada wasn’t Canada until 1967 and there were no Canadian coins until 1870. When the UK transferred most of its remaining land in North America to Canada in the summer of 1870, […]
Royal Jubilees are big business. Whether it’s with street parties or commemorative coins, the nation (and beyond) always marks them in quite some style. Thanks to Her Majesty’s record-breaking reign, we have been treated to a larger number of Jubilees than one might expect, with each one more remarkable than the last. Her next Jubilee […]
We’ve all spent a lot of time looking at our walls during the Coronavirus lockdowns, but probably never considered that there could be a fortune hiding in them… Maybe we should have though as a collection of gold coins dug out of the walls of a remote French mansion just fetched almost £900,000 at auction. […]
“In God We Trust” is the official motto of the United States. It first appeared on an American coin in 1864 and President Dwight Eisenhower approved a law in 1955 that required “In God We Trust” to appear on all American currency. But some groups in the US are objecting to its use, suggesting it […]
Have you heard about the “Jubilee Plot”? It was a supposed plan to assassinate Queen Victoria during her Golden Jubilee celebration at Westminster Abbey on 20 June 1887. The perpetrators were allegedly radical Irish nationalists, but all was not what it seemed… 19th century “Black Ops”? It was reported in various newspapers at the time […]
The 1933 Double Eagle was all set to be America’s last gold coin struck for circulation, but it was never issued because President Franklin Roosevelt took the United States off the gold standard. 445,500 were actually minted in 1933, but none were ever officially circulated, and all but two of them were meant to have […]
Every now and then there’s a coin with a story that’s so remarkable I end up telling everyone – the wife, friends, colleagues, even the cat if she listens… The Peace Dollar from 1926 is such a coin. It’s a coin that shouldn’t really exist. Click on the points below to find out why… If […]
Undefeated in battle, Alexander the Great is one of history’s most successful military leaders. By the age of 30 he had built an empire stretching from Greece to north-west India. His coinage was key to the expansion of his empire and the design of the Silver Drachm holds fascinating reflections of his mythological beliefs and claims. […]
The record price paid for a British coin has just been broken with the sale of a rare Gold £5 in Texas. The £5 coin was never officially issued, being one of just 3 prototypes known to exist. It carried the year “1937”, which is the key to this coin’s attraction and record price. Edward […]
One of a coin expert’s most important traits is the ability to notice small details that can make a big difference to a coin’s collectability and value. You get the chance to test your skills today by looking at the same coin issued in consecutive years, but other than the year changing, what makes one […]